Cookie-dough sucks toasted?

Pop Tarts Suck Toasted confronted a rough technological beginning of 2010: in February, the local-music-blog's chief architect Patrick Duffy woke up find that Google had unceremoniously expunged the nearly five-year-old site's archives, allegedly for repeated DMCA complaints. So even though PTST has been relocated and restored, Duffy could use some support for his dogged endurance, particularly at the inaugural Pop Tarts Suck Toasted showcase he's assembled next Friday at Glasslands with the Sundelles, Sea Monster, and Brooklyn indie-brood trio ARMS, who will soon outgrow the ex-Harlem Shakes disclaimer. We're giving away a pair of free tickets to Friday's show; just send an e-mail with "Mr. Pop Tarts" in the headline, the name you want on the list to cdoderoatvillagevoicedotcom, and one winner will be picked at random. Thank you for making this dream come true. Next up: getting published in a 'zine named after a taint.

Event flyer below.

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Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent.

Will Calcutt

​Brooklyn trio ARMS (all caps, please) is the tasteful, affable, basement-brewed indie-pop guise of Harlem Shakes guitarist Todd Goldstein. Before breaking up in September of last year, Harlem Shakes was the buzz band du jour, full of TVOTR studio motorik, sunshiney harmonies, jaunty keys, and garage rock churn. But behind the scenes, Goldstein was busy crafting a darker animal. ARMS is decidedly moodier, sulking and soaring in reverb-soaked bursts, like Grizzly Bear covering late-'80s Cure, or Phosphorescent trading Johnny Cash's black for Peter Murphy's Bauhaus black. Their upcoming five song record, called the Arms EP, follows their 2009 debut with a five-song cycle that tells a story about relationships and monsters. "Heat & Hot Water" appears in the middle, Goldstein's muted baritone cawing with intensity, his band perfectly mirroring his glacial changes in energy.

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