A true legend will grace our town with his presence this evening when Andy Rourke (The Smiths) takes over the DJ booth at Emo's Lounge. We caught up with Rourke briefly yesterday over the phone prior to his DJ set in Hollywood and quizzed him on a number of things, including what we might expect to hear tonight. Rourke, who's been DJing for over five years now and also has a show on XFM Manchester, promises "a bit of everything" -- Rolling Stones, Devo, The Clash, New Young Pony Club, The Who, and Arctic Monkeys to name just a few. He also had some words of praise for the MGMT singles, specifically "Electric Feel" and "Time To Pretend" -- although "the album was a little bit of a letdown." He believes that the Arctic Monkeys are one U.K. act that could have the longevity that The Smiths have enjoyed. ("They seem to get better with age.") And what of Johnny Marr’s decision to join Modest Mouse in 2006? Rourke thinks that Modest Mouse was lacking an edge and that Marr really brought a lot to the table and colored their sound. Reflecting on a show he attended a few years ago, he said, "I was amazed by how many young kids were there."...

On the off chance that Jesus Lizard jazz and R&B songs about sucking toes aren’t your thing, Emo’s Lounge has the rock-oriented antidote. Our own Oh No! Oh My! might be the biggest draw, what with their jovial, hummable tracks and cutesy name that demands to be said out loud, loudly. The band are promising a summer EP, which should jive swimmingly with their sun-loving sound, and an LP is also supposedly in the works. Hey, maybe these guys have a harder edge than we thought…their merch is too tough for Six Flags, anyway....

Whatcha doin’ Saturday night? You could punish your eardrums with bands like Doom Siren and Disempower at the Broken Neck, enjoy the Scoot Inn’s Coney Island Fest (which, with any luck, will serve up those delicious mid-west morsels they call coney dogs), or you could step into a Valium haze with those country-echo pioneers The Cowboy Junkies at The One World Theater. But to experience some raw rock’n’roll, you might be better off treading down to Emo’s Lounge, where the only thing to separate you from the noise is that weird split level moat-thing....

It seems like just yesterday we were honoring The Midgetmen’s five year anniversary. Well, turns out it has been a year already and this weekend at Emo’s Lounge, the local pop-punk act is celebrating its sixth birthday which conveniently coincides with the release of their third full-length album. The band’s new record Show Pony (Buy it here) is as eco-friendly as it gets -- per bassist / vocalist Marc Perlman, “100% post-consumer cardboard with environmentally friendly inks with no plastic shrink wrap. And, we just signed an agreement with our friends at MoveNeutral.com to carbon offset the CD release show as well as the entire tour!” Nice!...