Yeah yeah, we know it's already July 7, but there are still 22 shows left this month at the House of Blues front room and anything that promotes free local music deserves our attention despite us sleeping hard on Badstreet and Ecklund Power Trio. Once again, the schedule pulled together by local promoter Josh Allain looks pretty tight, and we're already psyched to the moon over the Night Fruit and Streight Angular gig on July 23.

^{Photo: EVILIVE/M. NUNEZ}

Perhaps you've heard about the new comic book HENRY AND GLENN FOREVER. If not, we'll quote the publisher:

Henry and Glenn are very good 'friends.' They are also 'room mates.' Daryl and John live next door. They are satanists.” What follows is ultra-metal violence and cryfest diary entries, cringing self-doubt and mega-hilarious emo-meltdowns.

We will have more on last night's Deer Tick/Jenny Lewis show at the House of Blues last night. Mostly pertaining to the former, if we're being totally honest here. Lewis wasn't bad, just didn't really do it for me. But Deer Tick certainly did not disappoint. Above, we've got "Little White Lies," another track from the forthcoming Born On Flag Day, which they were selling on vinyl at the show.

We'll have more on this show later, including photos and a review, but for now we'd really like to give you a taste of last night's TV on the Radio/Dirty Projectors extravaganza at the HoBo. Above is the fast-becoming-legendary DPs-do-Mary-J-Blige song "Stillness is the Move," which probably on its own sold a couple dozen tickets to that Somerville Theatre show coming up later this month.

Kicking Ourselves Dept.: The National played in town this past Saturday, and I totally slept on it. "What's the point?" I thought. "They're not doing anything new or anything like that."

Well, joke's on me, clearly, as they did play two new songs at the House of Blues. Above is video of one songs, "The Runaway," done at Studio Q in Canada.

"This show's going to be 97% gay guys... and, like, 3% fat chicks", said the guy next to me to his friends.  We were all waiting in an eternal line on Lansdowne Street, and as everyone around me started passing the booze amongst themselves, the "real talk" began, I suppose.  Of course, the dude couldn't have been more wrong, or it least it seemed that way from where I was standing during the show itself, once the House of Blues finally opened their doors and let us all in.  Ostensibly a free show, quizzically brought to us by The Grammys and T-Mobile, it was an odd pairing of two of pop's current leading ladies, and it really was astounding how well it all worked out. FULL REVIEW, PHOTOS, AND VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP

22 PHOTOS: KELLY CLARKSON + LADY GAGA | House of Blues, Boston | May 4

Bitte Orca, the highly anticipated new album from Brooklyn experimental collective Dirty Projectors, hit the internet today. It's already been pulled from most outlets, though, so we can't even offer any coy suggestions of where you might find it. We haven't even formed much by way of coherent thoughts on the matter; it will take a few listens before we really wrap our heads around Dave Longstreth's intricate arrangements.

We fully support a moritorium on claiming Boston pride for bands that formed at colleges here and then moved away before their graduation Starbucks lattes had time to cool. But damned if we're gonna be the ones to make that move unilaterally. Which means that for the time being we're repping CHESTER FRENCH, if only because the core duo's degrees from Harvard allow us to bask in the glow of CF's close personal friendships with Kanye West, Paris Hilton, Diddy, and a bunch of other people who would otherwise never associate themselves with kids who hang out at the Coop. Also, the Chester French dudes are mad twitterers. In about 100 hours, the French kids drop a Clinton Sparks-helmed mixtape, Jacques Jams Vol 1: Endurance, which may or may not be a tribute to the local tranny bar. We can only hope. If not, it's still the only "Boston" "album" this decade to feature guest appearances by Diddy, Pharrell (who's already signed the Chesters to his Star Trak label), Bun B, Cassie, and the Clipse. Sign up to get first crack at it over here.

More importantly, last night Chester French played their first Boston gig in almost forever -- opening for Lady GaGa at the House of Blues (photos of her up here) -- and we've got photos, as well as a review from our own Daniel Brockman, after the jump.

Photos: Cassandra Marino

BLOC PARTY kicked off their US headlining tour at the House of Blues last night -- and if the buzz has slacked off Intimacy, someone forgot to tell everyone who showed up. The album's sleeper charm is getting a fresh coat of awesome this spring with a triple-LP remix set -- and everyone knows that when it comes to this band, the remixes tend to overshadow the originals.

We've known for a while that it was coming -- thanks to Jimmy Eat World's Clarity throwback tour, which was announced several weeks back -- but now it's official: the Lansdowne Street House of Blues (which of course will bare no resemblance to the old Original House of Blues in Harvard Square where you saw R.L. Burnside and David Johanssen and such) will open in February, with a lineup that sounds not unlike what the old Avalon would've played host to around this time of year.