• LADY LAMB THE BEEKEEPER continues to turn heads now that she's exited the Pine Tree State. This week she showed up as the MTV blog's "Needle in the Haystack," where they tarted her up a bit by having her bare some skin and then asked her impressive questions like, "How does it feel to be MTV Music's Needle in the Haystack?" Plus, BLAST MAGAZINE named her "Buzzworthy," and asked such probing questions as "who were your influences?" and "have you played music for a long time?" and "how did you come up with your name?" And Boston's other alt-weekly, the Dig, asked her the same questions (well, basically) as part of a profile, which adds to her notices in the Globe and Herald. Pretty impressive.
• Poke around on the internets a bit and you'll find new music from MARIE STELLA, which this week released "En Fluxx" and "Jealous Powers" from sessions they've been doing with RON HARRITY at FOREST CITY STUDIOS. Look for more of these drips and drops of gal-fronted indie-rock goodness as the band aim for a full-length by the end of the year or so.
• Have you noticed some activity out at BIG SOUND, the recording studio that's been more like a morgue lately? Yep. JOE BRIEN is back behind the boards there as of February 1, after securing a short-term rental of the joint to finish up an older project from a decade back. Things go well, it could turn into a reopening on a long-term basis.
• The SOPHOMORE BEAT just finished up four new songs with TJ SWAN and JONATHAN WYMAN, which will be packaged together for an EP they're calling Rock Like a Lobster and should be released in March. You can check out "Believe," the first release, on Facebook and other fine social-networking locations.
