Please join me in welcoming the wonderful and talented Eva Sollberger to the Seven Days blog roundup. Queen Eva will be publishing a vlog (that's a video-based weblog, for all you Luddites) called Stuck in Vermont.

As a longtime fan of Eva's Deadbeat Club program on VCAM, I'm psyched she's on board.

Delancey Leathers and I have been e-mailing back and forth about prog metal today, so in that spirit, I present to you Italy's Ephel Duath.

MP3: Ephel Duath — "Imploding"

You can find it on eMusic, iTunes and backwater European distro services. Actually, the band is signed to Earache, so it shouldn't be difficult to order it from your fave record store.

What's going on this weekend? There's that Mardi Gras business, which I'm gonna skip. I never participate in First Night, either. Freezing cold and throngs of people = Operation Hell On Earth.

There's the distinct possibility I'll go to Higher Ground on Sunday to see Jello Biafra and/or Asobi Seksu, though.

I hung out in Strangeways Recording with Cccome? yesterday. Those guys are hilarious. They're playing tonight at Radio Bean alongside Swale. I don't know if I'm gonna make it; I have to get my beauty sleep in order to master the Cccome? album the following day.

The Strangeways cats — Daryl Rabidoux and Mike Poorman — are actually pulling up stakes and moving to Providence in April. There's a benefit show to raise money for their U-Haul taking place at Club Metronome on Friday March 2. Bands on the bill: Tell No One, Carrigan, Brixton Guns and Zac Clark.

You can read a little bit more about it in next week's column.