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1 week ago | 
vanyaland.com | Michael Marotta
It’s the Year of Wet Leg, and none of us can stop it.
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2 weeks ago | 
vanyaland.com | Michael Marotta
In recent years we’ve often shown the love to Grub, Sweat, and Beers, the Allston’s annual serving of music n’ meats at the soon to be relaunched O’Brien’s Pub. But this year might be the first time we’ve dropped it into our Fest Intentions highlight series, because the 2025 lineup — the weekend’s ninth offering overall — is a fucking beast of Boston heaviness.
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2 weeks ago | 
vanyaland.com | Michael Marotta
As we noted a few very long months ago, we are here for the official Chloe Moriondo glow-up of 2025. The Detroit alt-pop and indie comet has been building a cult-like following in recent years, releasing new album oyster in March via Public Consumption/Atlantic Music Group, and wrapping a 20-show North American spring tour with a penultimate appearance tonight (May 21) at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club.
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2 weeks ago | 
vanyaland.com | Michael Marotta
When this year’s Boston Calling lineup was revealed back in January, much of the focus was given to both the trio of headliners (Luke Combs, Fall Out Boy, Dave Matthews Band) and deep roster of legacy acts (Sheryl Crow, Public Enemy, TLC, Sublime). But a quick look beyond the poster’s large fonts and familiar names reveals another eclectic collection of sounds from an emerging new wave of artists.
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2 weeks ago | 
vanyaland.com | Michael Marotta
Monday night in Allston is when the freaks come out to play, and tonight (May 19) the allure in the air carves a path to Brighton Music Hall, where Squid deliver a blissful cacophony of sounds that should hit differently away from the weekend’s distractions.
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3 weeks ago | 
vanyaland.com | Michael Marotta
Editor’s Note: Welcome to V3 Weekend, Vanyaland‘s guide to help you sort out your weekend entertainment with curated selections and recommendations across our three pillars of Music, Comedy, and Film/TV. It’s what you should know about, where you need to be, and where you’ll be going, with us riding shotgun along the way. Five years ago we hyped THICK’s then-new 5 Years Behind EP, and this weekend feels like an appropriate time to revisit it.
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3 weeks ago | 
vanyaland.com | Michael Marotta
This week’s New Music Friday slate delivers an intriguing EP from Kilo Kish titled Negotiations, and given the sneaky, seductive allure of yesterday’s (May 14) aural appetizer “enough,” it shouldn’t take much convincing to side with the Brooklyn artist. “enough” explores the desire for validation through a hypnotic synth-soul glide, the type of dance track that allows the listener to move while standing still. It has us in a trance.
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3 weeks ago | 
vanyaland.com | Michael Marotta
Sometimes a song isn’t so much a song as it is a confrontation, and within that confrontation is a chance to escape, if only for a moment, the blackened malaise of life.
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3 weeks ago | 
vanyaland.com | Michael Marotta
When a person tells you who they are, it’s best to listen. And when an artist declares a new track “the most unhinged song I have ever written,” well, that warrants full attention, too. Enter Sydney Sprague, the Phoenix singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who delivers “As Scared As Can Be” as a full swandive into the chaos that only charred emotional wreckage of unreciprocated love can bring.
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3 weeks ago | 
vanyaland.com | Michael Marotta
Back in December, just at the start of winter, when Kendrick Lamar and longtime collaborator SZA announced the Grand National Tour, we used it to cross off two potential names from Boston Calling’s rumored headliner board for 2025. But so much has gone down since — we’re still thinking about that Super Bowl performance, and we got our festival lineup locked in — that we kinda can’t believe that tonight show (May 12) at Gillette Stadium is finally here.
