Hi there, squirrel monkeys. Sorry I left you in a lurch this week; that Rumble thing wears me out. Congratulations once again to Township, and thank you for taking that blasted tiara off our hands. Now, does someone want this Dinosaur Jr Reunion Maxie Award that we stole?

The best thing about the Rumble, besides losing, is getting exposed to all sorts of new bands; for me, the bright spot this year was Age Rings, who awesomely describe their sound as "the theme from M*A*S*H if it were written by Roy Orbison and played by Wilco with louder amps or something." Hit up "Dead Man's Float" on their Myspace. It's ace. They'll be at TT's this Wednesday May 2nd, along with the also-dope Everyday Visuals. So go to that.

In case you hadn't noticed, I'll be doing the solo acoustic thing again on Monday the 7th at TT's, opening for Paul Janovitz and David Mirabella. Shit starts at 8:30 -- I'm on first -- and it's three bucks. Post your requests below and I will ignore them as I see fit.

Thursday the 10th at Hennessy's we've got Okay Thursday with The Bleedin' Bleedins, Static of the Gods, and Life in Bed. That last band there hails from Pittsburgh, where my old band once played a crappy show under a tent. True story.

Friday May 11! The Dents! The Abbey! Teh sexxy r0xx0rs!!!1

Hotshot Rumble penultimates Baker rock the Middle East down on Saturday the 12th, with Hot Rod Circuit, Limbeck, and The Forecast. That same night is a balls-out attack on Great Scott, with Hooray For Earth, Taxpayer, Demander, and Badman at The Plan. Alas, I won't be at either of these shows, because I have to go to upstate NY that weekend and say goodbye to my childhood home and cry and stuff.

Lastly, a PSA for any of y'alls who've recently jumped aboard the Regina Spektor bandwagon: If you only own Begin To Hope, do yourself a flavour and get your hands on a copy of the Songs version of "Samson." It's a gajillion times better, and I'm wicked soft for it. You are my sweetest downfall. I loved you first.

4/30 Addendum: Congratulations to our boys in Harris, who have signed to New York City's digital-based Cordless Recordings, a new addition to the Warner Bros. label. w00t!

Things I'm bad at: Football. Going out for "a" beer. Driving to Mike Mirabella's house.

And WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble predictions.

The finals (this Friday 4/20) have come down to Baker and Township, with The Indefinite Article swinging in with the wildcard. Early consensus seems to be leaning toward Township, but I'm just gonna say that Baker's going to win the whole bloody thing, and then we can all stop talking about this. And stop going to Harper's Ferry so much.

Real quick, a fistful of other shows that might whet your fancy:

Thurs 4/19: 2006 Rumble champs C4RT end their reign with a show at Hennessy's upstairs
Thurs 4/19: longtime Scamper friend Mark Bates brings it to the Abbey
Sat 4/21: Senor Happy @ the Abbey
Sun 4/22: Fountains of Wayne @ the Paradise

I'll close by saying that I got hit with a bad case of 1988 this weekend and downloaded a bunch of tunes by Cinderella, Richard Marx, Eddie Money, White Lion, Heart, and Invisible Touch-era Genesis. Tom Kiefer: worst (quasi-)successful vocalist ever? Discuss!

The carnage of the preliminary round of the WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble is complete. The streets of Allston are littered with the bloody corpses of sixteen bands who failed to advance to this coming weekend's semifinal round, continuing at Harper's Ferry. Two bands who were manhandled and left for dead this past week, Aloud and Age Rings, were miraculously resuscitated when Shred and his elves gave them the coveted wildcard spots. Let's take a look at the matchups! Ya!

Friday April 13
Protokoll
The Silver Lining
Baker
Aloud (wildcard)

Nate's Take: This is hard. I am in a pickle. Seriously, that could be the finals right there. But seeing as how I expected them in the finals from the get-go, I'll put my money on The Silver Lining. I strongly suspect that the wildcard will come from this night, and you know what? I'm going to go ahead and give it to Baker (unless the cranky assistant-to-the-soundguy at Harper's sabotages Baker's set because of Steve's theatrics last week). Those adorable pop kids shall avenge us!

Sorry, Aloud, I gave you my love last time and you failed me something ugly.

(Quick aside: Baker has put a few tracks from their forthcoming album up on their Myspace page. I'm a "Fingers" guy; Mirabella's all soft for "All the Time." You?)

Saturday April 14
The Indefinite Article
Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves
Township
Age Rings (wildcard)

Nate's take: This is not hard; Eli Reed runs away with it again. After seeing his preliminary set, I think you could put him on a bill with U2, Timbaland, and The Beatles and he'd win. The Edge would then attack Shred with a giant lemon, Timbaland would bring Lennon back, and Sanjaya would steal the tiara. What?

It will surely be interesting to see Indefinite Article after Eli.

Fancy non-Rumble plugs, do you? You got it, cupcake.

Mon 4/9 @ Avalon: Kaiser Chiefs. Download "Ruby" right now.
Fri 4/13 @ Middle East down: Kielty's Birthday with The Gentlemen, Heavy Stud (reunion), The Russians, The Dead Trees (formerly Furvis), Jake Brennan
Sat 4/14 @ the Lizard: Will Dailey, Derek Schanche (Senor Happy)
Sun 4/15 @ the Abbey: Okay Thursday

Public service from diggity: If you're not on tourfilter yet, you're a clown. At this point, it's really doing all my work for me here at The Scene, and expediting my long slide into irrelevance. Simply register and plug in a list of bands that you like -- hell, you can just copy it right out of the music section on your ugly Myspace page -- and voila, a no-frills list of any and all upcoming shows that you may want to attend. They send you emails, too, which I don't really need, but you can just mark those as spam and fuhgedaboutit.

Lastly, someone out there in Generation YouTube had the utterly brilliant idea of dubbing James Earl Jones' voice, from various non-Star Wars films, into scenes from A New Hope, and the results are absolutely astounding. You haven't seen funny til you've seen an unhinged Vader wax nostalgic about baseball.