Like UndergroundHipHop.com, the on-line rap music mecca that has a storefront at 234 Huntington Ave, local music blog Ryan's Smashing Life will transcend e-existence. They're hosting a show tomorrow at the Middle East Upstairs featuring Boston indie trio Static of the Gods. Afterwards, Static of the Gods will be getting in an appropriately-sized vehicle and heading west for a string of shows in Texas and beyond. To celebrate, they've given Ryan's Smashing Life an exclusive......

Bostonist caught Broken River Prophet's CD release party at the Middle East upstairs last night, complete with cupcakes and amazing openers. We just missed Ba-Na-Nas, but had the pleasure of hearing Animal Hospital, BRP themselves, and of course headliners +/-. Here's what it looked like from the crowd.......

-- Boston police have charged three in the May killing of a South Boston man. Edward Holloman, 19, of Lynn, and Edward Mendez, 34, of Jamaica Plain were both charged with murder. Darren Hemingway, 19, of Brighton, was charged as an accessory after the fact. The men are accused of killing 27-year-old Curtis Ashford after getting into a fight on 8th Street last May. [BPDNews] -- A melee spilled out of the Middle East rock......

Broken River Prophet CD Release Party for With Infinite Arms to Cradle the Flames Middle East Upstairs Saturday, August 16, 9pm with Plus/Minus, Animal Hospital, Ba-Na-Nas $9 advance / $10 day of Our "Bostonian of the Week" feature is verging on "musicians of the week," but that's okay with us. Broken River Prophet is a local band with a long history—it first made dark, unsettling yet beautiful noise in 1994, and had a shifting lineup......

The Bee's Knees is... uh... the bee's knees? Local acts Lorntell and the Bee's Knees (no link because their site will harm your computer, according to Google!) opened up for NYC-Denver hipsters Motel Motel at the Middle East Upstairs last night. Bostonist was there to catch a bit of the Knees and Motel squared. Each band was interesting in its own way, though the progression between them felt a little odd. The Bee's Knees......

Ladyhawk with Neva Dinova and Allston's Quixote. Middle East Upstairs, Doors at 9 PM. 18+, $10 British Columbia's Ladyhawk will be headlining the Middle East upstairs tonight in support of its new album "Shots," which the band describes as "...a night album. It is the sound of Ladyhawk getting loose -- turning up loud, downing a few more and howling at the moon." The album features toe-tapping, fist-pumping rock that features solid beats and......

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......

Music Hometown keytar heroes Freezepop have returned from touring the world (okay, Florida, and the Rust Belt) to once again rock Cambridge, with the help of the The Information, The Main Drag, and Michael Hensley. Middle East Downstairs, 8 pm, 18+, $14. Beer Harpoon will hold its St. Patrick's Festival at the brewery on 306 Northern Avenue. Wear galoshes because the floor may well be slick with beer. Harpoon Brewery, 5:30 to 11:00 pm,......

Books Sarah Boxer bravely prowled through the blogosphere to share its treasures with us in Ultimate Blogs. Of course, Go Fug Yourself makes the list. Brattle Theatre (via Harvard Book Store), 6:00 pm, $5. Edit: Event has been moved to Harvard Book Store --If you've been reading Bostonist for a while, you might know how we feel about the potential of wind power. A while ago, we read this barnburner of a book about......

Music Annie Clark went to Berklee, paid her indie-cred dues in Sufjan Stevens' touring band and the Polyphonic Spree, and named her solo project St. Vincent after a church where which she fell in love and the hospital where Dylan Thomas died. Her songs are chamber pop clad in synthesizers and charm. Middle East Downstairs, 8 pm, 18+, $12. Carnal Carnival Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys know how to throw a......

Books --Charles Bock's Beautiful Children isn't as delicate as it sounds. A couple reels after their child vanishes in the Las Vegas desert--only it's so, so much more than that, and it's received a flood of attention. The Globe thought Bock threw too much into his debut, but everyone seems to agree that he's ambitious. Brookline Booksmith, 7:00 pm, free. Speaking of free, he's letting you download the book without dropping a single dime.......

Music Atlas Sound, featuring Bradford Cox going solo during Deerhunter's hiatus, hits the Middle East tonight, riding a wave of praise for his new project. Cox's hometown weekly, Atlanta's Creative Loafing, raves, "Let the Blind contains Cox's most haunting and sad songs to date. It throbs with delirious depression, and is bursting with powerful, barely contained emotions." For those of you who can handle strong emotions in the bleak winter, Cox is your fella.......

Oscars Hooray that the writers' strike is over, and we can see overmedicated stars and their pretty dresses walk the red carpet! Regarding the actual movie-picking, Reel Hub is a touch grouchy due to the shadiness of the Oscar voting process. If you'd like to watch the festivities with others, dress up for the Fafarazzi.com Oscar party at Lir, 903 Boylston, Boston, 5:00 pm. Travel Plans The Boston Globe Travel Show is on at......

Manchildren Founder of K Records and former member of Beat Happening, Calvin Johnson mastered precious naivete decades before it became the default indie mode. His off-kilter baritone is what sold it, and he's bringing his voice and an acoustic guitar to Cambridge tonight. Teenbeat Records founder Mark Robinson also performs as Cotton Candy. Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square, 7:00pm, $10. Men With Children Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers is returning to......

Music --The Magnetic Fields, on Valentine's Day? Could anything be better for a first date, or any sort of date? They even work well for a broken heart. Well, only if you got tickets in time. Check the Craig, as this one is a hot ticket. Somerville Theatre, Davis Square, 8:00 pm, $27.50. Good luck getting in! --Drown your Valentine's Day sorrows with a night of indie rock and dancing at Viva Viva's Valentine's......

Music --The Willows bring to the Middle East Upstairs a brand of Americana country rock inspired by the seasonal carnival scene up in Salem. Alas, no salt water taffy is included in the price of admission. With The Vic Morrows, The Resonance, The Giant Melons. Middle East Upstairs, 472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, doors 9:00, 18+, $8. --While the show has been sold out for weeks, if there's any way you can get in we......

Music Few acts in hip-hop's young guard come more correct than Berkeley, CA crew The Pack. Roiling, minimalist beats, raps about partying and sneakers, and a whispered menace that keeps you off guard: it's like degree zero of the art form. Sounds great on record (or Myspace), but can they rock an audience? Harper's Ferry, 158 Brighton Ave., Allston, 7:00 pm, $12/$14. Could your music options for tonight be any different? "Lady rapper" Leslie......

Movies Catch a sneak preview of In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. The movie, which screened at Sundance, follows two hit men who are forced to vacation in the tourist hotspot. CNN dared to call the film "Tarantino-esque." Whether or not "Tarantino-esque" fits, the trailer is full of some sharp one-liners. Director Martin McDonagh will be there. Brattle Theatre, 7:00 pm. Doors open at 6:00, and getting there early is recommended. Check out......

Mike of The Food Monkey shares his thoughts about cooking, food history, restaurant trends, and any other Epicurean issues. He promises to discuss what tastes good, but not always what is in good taste. For more on consuming the opponents and other food news, go to the Food Monkey website. To contact Mike, go to the Food Monkey's contact page. Chef Rebecca Newell from The Beehive in Boston’s South End, has sent me the recipe......

Movies Strap yourselves in for the Brattle Theatre's very first Python-a-Thon. In honor of the arrival of Spamalot, they'll show And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (duh), and Monty Python and the Meaning of Life. Showtimes from the Brattle Theatre. Theater What happened when Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr met to discuss the atom bomb? Michael Frayn imagines it in Copenhagen. Loeb Drama Center.......

Music Hallelujah the Hills will continue their commitment to banishing collective psychosis with indie rock. With Faces on Film. See today's earlier post for the glorious details of this show. Middle East Upstairs, Cambridge, 9:00 pm. Comedy If actor, comedian, occasional HuffPo blogger Rick Overton seems familiar, it's because he was God. Really. He's been in scads of movies and TV shows, and he played God on "Joan of Arcadia." Comedy Connection, Faneuil Hall, 8:00......

Hallelujah the Hills with Faces On Film, Reports, DJ Patrick Grenham Middle East Upstairs Friday, January 4, 9 p.m. $9 advance / $10 doors 18+ TGIF is an infamous phrase, but some of us prefer to say "Hallelujah" come Fridays. This Friday, the Middle East (the club, not the geographic location) brings you the opportunity to Hallelujah the Hills with the band of the same name, who'll be joined by Faces on Film, Reports,......

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones' Hometown Throwdown, which concludes tonight at the Middle East, is already going viral. YouTube user ">trebmal007 managed to get some cell-phone video. The sound is terrible, but the following video gives a sense of how packed the Middle East Downstairs was: Miss MP also has a description of the evening (via Universal Hub). Miss MP writes, "Everyone danced. Everyone sang along. Everyone threw their hands up at the right times--even my......

The Hometown Throwdown with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones will kick off at the Middle East tonight and will take place every night until Sunday, December 30. Tickets are as precious as gold--all five shows sold out in seven minutes, according to the Globe. On Craigslist, tickets are going for about $200. On StubHub and eBay, the prices are dizzying. But at least no one is getting desperate. Bosstones fans have pride, and no one has......

Music --Multimedia artist and musician Brian Dewan will join Bostonist faves Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys, the Boston Typewriter Orchestra, and S. Joe Hazelwood at Church. Of course, the Broken Toys are promising frilly panties and corsets. 69 Kilmarnock Street, 9:00 pm. --The Lemonheads make a return to the Middle East. Evan Dando is bringing members of the Descendents with him. Dando still has a wild streak--he talked 'shrooms and Cro-Magnon man......

When Bostonist entered Buckaroo's Mercantile, a pop-culture store across the street from T.T. the Bear's and the Middle East in Central Square, stocking stuffers were on our mind. The owner of Buckaroo's Mercantile, Brooks, layers retro images over metal wallets, night lites, light-switch plate covers, and more. Brooks told Bostonist that all of the above items were hot sellers at the Bazaar Bizarre, and you can buy them at the store. You can also choose......

BARONESS Friday, November 30th Middle East Downstairs Cambridge, MA w/ Witchcraft, Radio Moscow 18+ / $10 ADV / $12 DOS MySpace: Baroness The debut EP First by Savannah's Baroness was a bit of al ife-changer. More of a life-reinvigorator. Produced by Phillip Cope of Kylesa, the three tracks harnessed much that had been missing from the blend of technical metal with a heavy dose of stoner meticulousity. To call the Southeast band "metal" is......

Tourfilter DJ Night River Gods (125 River St., Central Square) Thursday, November 29, 9 p.m. -1 a.m. Free! If you're not already a member, you should definitely join Tourfilter.com. It's a music fan's dream: a comprehensive site that lets you track your favorite bands and get e-mail updates when they're coming to town--or, in the case of local bands, playing near you. The site's also a great way to get to know new bands, since......

Wednesday, November 14 Jonah Lehrer, Harvard Book Store, Proust Was A Neuroscientist, 7:00 pm, Harvard Book Store Lehrer, a Rhodes scholar and writer/line cook/lab tech, dives into works of classic literature and art and finds out how each work beat neuroscientists at determining how the mind works. Check out Bostonist's interview with Lehrer. Thursday, November 15 David Michaelis, 7:00 pm, Brookline Booksmith Michaelis is the biographer of Charles Schulz, the creator of "Peanuts." Imagine our......

Juliette and the Licks Scissors for Lefty, Suffrajett Middle East Downstairs Tonight, 8 p.m., $15 (18+) MySpace She's a J. Lewis making a name for herself in music after an acting career, the frontwoman of an otherwise all-male band, someone known for keeping audiences guessing about how she's going to look, what she's going to wear, what she's going to do. But whereas Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis takes the demure route (as much as one......