From the inbox:

Energized by the success of their fiery set at London's O2 Wireless Festival this past weekend, recording marvels Gnarls Barkley are pleased to announce a host of new U.S. tour dates.

JULY
18, 19 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
20 Costa Mesa, CA Pacific Amphitheatre
23, 24 Los Angeles, CA The Avalon

We don't have anything very original to say about the Beatings, whose praises have been widely and accurately sung in fishwraps and on internets alike. They write good songs that remind us of other good songs, and their records compare favorably with several boy-girl indie-pop bands we adore: the Pixies is the comparison they've been saddled with most, but there's hints of Superchunk and (early) Jawbox in there too.

In retrospect, it was kind of inevitable, wasn't it?

Consider the facts: Kay Hanley, long time Phoenix darling, writes a song called "Cellars by Starlight," inspired by the Phoenix's indestructible local-music column of the same name. A ploy for us to cover her in the column, yes?

Ah, but no: turns out it was a ploy for her to write the column.

Psapp (with Jose Gonzalez, about whom more soon)
June 28 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Seeing Psapp perform live has taught me two things. One is that I should refrain, immediately, from calling them Pee-Sap (silent p, kids) to prevent one of the many future events in which I will make an ass of myself.

In case the Elle spread didn't change your mind about the midget, maybe you'll take our word for it: Mac Big Digits reviewed the Streets gig for the fishwrap, and we'll add our two cents to his opinion. She was pretty good, completely endearing, fucking adorable.

In lieu of the leaked track from a couple weeks back, she played a new song we still haven't tracked down yet.

Yeah, we'll take a little credit for discovering Casey Dienel: threw her some shine on the Grandma Rock demo back before she signed to Decemberists' old label, Cami hollered at the girl when she put out her album. Pitchfork and them wanna follow, they can follow. People who know, know. But credit where it's due: Daytrotter is blowing the girl up all over the place with the live session she did up in there.

The Gersch: preparing to unleash the goat horns.

When Hydrahead and Tortuga left Boston (literally, in OTD's backyard) for L.A. we kicked them in the ass and thumbed our noses and told them they'd be back in six months. Now that they're distributed by Vice and get their bands reviewed in the New York Times, it may be time to face facts: they won't be crawling back for at least another two, three years tops.

With Reid Paley, no less. Reid being credited as co-writer on four songs off Black's new Fast Man Raider Man discs. As far as we can tell, this is Frank's only area date that is not with the Foo Fighters at the Wang Center (which was, of course, really fucking expensive and is now sold out, to boot.) Also, for what it's worth, there is not a better place to see a rock show than the Wellfleet Beachcomber on a summer evening.

The last time thePhoenix.com talked to Sleater Kinney, Carrie Brownstein dropped her cell phone, fell down in the woods, and had to call the doctor. Which is much prefereable, message-wise, to the email that came over the wire this afternoon:

After eleven years as a band, Sleater-Kinney have decided to go on indefinite hiatus.

All photos (c) Byron Smith

Speaking of how Fueled By Ramen rules the universe, the kids were dying to let us let them shoot Cute Is What We Aim For, who we'll all be talking about in a few months as the next Panic! at the Disco. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. First, they had to play the obligatory packed-solid, buzzed-to-death church show up in Allston, just so all our fave scenesters could say they Saw Them Way Back When.

Click image above to watch slideshow.

You know how Amanda Palmer do: even when no one's looking, the girl's like a walking episode of Pants Off Dance Off. So no surprise that she can't just take Dresden Dolls on a tour opening for Panic! at the Disco (a/k/a The Emo Band Top 40 Radio Is Playing Now That They've Run Out of Good Fall Out Boy Songs).

All six people who read this blog on the regular know TD as the guy in Big Digits with the moustache. He is also one funny motherfucker. So even though the concept for "Douchebags: 24 Times a Second" will be familiar to anyone who ever saw Mystery Science Theatre 3000 -- go ahead, remind them about that; they love when people bring it up -- let us assure you that this is completely different.

Someone leaked 16 seconds of the new Justin Timberlake single, "Sexy Back," which is due to be released July 7 as the lead song from his FutureSex/LoveSounds. Like, this isn't even a PromoSquad snippet. It's not even a hook. It's just 16 seconds of Timbo-produced track, so trying to reconstruct what the song sounds like is sorta out there with reconstructing dinosaurs from their toe bones.

Still in her early 20s, Pamela Martinez has been making music since she began taking piano lessons at 7. In elementary school she took on the violin, and by 16 she'd formed her first “noise-folk” band in Texas. She's got obvious vocal talent -- which is what's led at least one writer to declaire her an American Bjork -- but, just as importantly, she's got an innate ability to blend all her varied musical talents together in a unique and uncompromising manner.

When Dan and Liz moved from Brooklyn to Providence, RI, we thought we'd be seeing a lot more of them round these parts. We thought the same thing when Kim and Thurston movied to Northampton, but in both cases, it ain't quite worked out that way. Aside from a memorable First Night show a few years back when the Littletons showed up with their pals the Defevers, we haven't seen much of them.