Letters to Cleo, circa 1993

This past Saturday night, you could've caught Lou Barlow and J. Mascis reuniting for a set of Dinosaur Jr. songs at the Orpheum . . . or you could've caught half of Letters to Cleo backing Miley Cyrus at the MGM Grand. Call it fate. But given that Stacy Jones and Kay Hanley have found themselves in the world's most successful touring band -- and that said band is really, when you think about it, not a hell of a far cry from what they were doing in Letters to Cleo -- we'd say the time is about right for a LTC reunion.

Pacifist observers of the ongoing beef between Providence indie rap hero Sage Francis and Southie rhyme king Slaine should be excited to know that the Internet-fueled feud between the two heavyweights has not ended in a blood bath. Sources on the ground at this past night's Scroobius Pip show at The Paradise report that while the two finally had a heated exchange in person, no punches were thrown, nor were any weapons pulled.

Arriving at Kutshers Country Club in Monticello, NY, I felt like I was living through an early 90's equivalent of Bergman's Wild Strawberries, minus the awards ceremony: a pastoral dream-romp through one's past, where the sights and sounds of one's formative years were brought back and forced to clash with aging sensibilities.

Maybe, maybe not -- but just to make sure, he had a little cheat sheet with him on stage last night (see photo above) as Weezer kicked off a US tour at Tsongas Arena. Besides the Nirvana cover, there was also an Oasis cover, and a cameo by Tom DeLonge. Carina Mastrocola was on hand to snap a bunch of the action, click below for the slideshow:

I’m excited to report that most folks who came to check Santogold at The Paradise last Saturday did not think she was M.I.A. The former might have been aggressive in her allegations that those who compare the two are racist (though she also might have been correct), but at this juncture it’s a phenomenon of mistaken identity that she can stop harping on.

DOWNLOAD: TAB THE BAND, “HEAVY IDEA” [MP3]

For a rock band, there’s only one real way to channel the spirits of Steppenwolf, Deep Purple, and, well, the Eagles without sounding grossly ironic: have one of your dads be a member of Aerosmith. By this criterion, Duxbury’s finest, TAB the Band, should have double the success in their adoption of the arena-rock mantle: brothers Tony (guitar) and Ben (bass) are offspring of Joe Perry.

Deadly Sins

DOWNLOAD: ASHERS, “DESTITUTION” [MP3]

DOWNLOAD: DEADLY SINS, “GREY SKIES TURN” [MP3]

Not that they’re strangers or anything, but it’s nice to know that there’s now a single degree of separation between Boston’s two biggest punk-rock franchises: members of Dropkick Murphys and the Unseen have fired up two new bands who share former Crash and Burn guitarist Bill Brown.