[Happy birthday, Paul Weller. What I wouldn't give for a little Jam this morning:] Top 5 ways to make merry musically in Los Angeles tonight: ☛ Watch enchanting Australian brother-and-sister folkies Angus & Julia Stone — their new album "Down the Way" is awfully sweet — on the first of their two sold-out nights at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. ☛ Rock out to the Airborne Toxic Event (and support Amnesty International) at the L.A. quintet's sold-out benefit show at the Echo. [...]

Next month a good chunk of the Suburban Home roster is gonna convene upon Denver for a weekend of music, BBQ, garage sales and plenty of drinking. Having mostly recovered from my revelry up in Minneapolis and still being pretty bitter about Two Cow Garage not coming to the Tampa Bay area, I'm doing what any other stupid fuck with no money and less sense does: I'm quoting Tim Barry, saying "fuck tomorrow and fuck all the yesterday's" and flying to Denver. Yup, good ol' Autopsy IV is gonna exchange flat Florida's heat for Denver's elevation [...]

[Salutations to birthday guy Carlos Santana today. Here's what's up tonight:] NYC shoegaze/jangle-pop quartet the Pains of Being Pure at Heart [pictured], who played great shows at SXSW and at Spaceland earlier this year, return to L.A. — fresh from the Pitchfork Music Festival — for an engagement at the Echo. ... If you like a little more sizzle on sweltering summer night, there's plenty for you too: The Growlers and Sweaters provide support for Japanese Motors' residency at the [...]

Some great reasons to get out of the house tonight: The big shows have the Decemberists (supported by very talented Oklahomans Other Lives ) at the Palladium, and a lot of people my age heading to see the brother acts — the Allmans and the Doobies — at the Greek Theatre. ... Ex-rapper Hesta Prynn (Northern State), who's reinvented herself as a pretty nifty pop songstress, plays the Silverlake Lounge along with Rachel Cantu , and others. ... Australia's Youth Group visits the Troubadour with support from [...]

It's been a while since we posted a Lucero Message Board compilation. Really, I'm not too sure what's going on. The curator of the comp hasn't been coming around too much, but we have been graced with a "Spring" compilation. It's shorter than most, but what it lacks from a numbers standpoint it more than makes up for from a quality point. Also, since it was such a hit in my April podcast, I put the Gillian Welch/Old Crow Medicine Show version of The Band's song "The Weight". I hope y'all enjoy this comp, I know I am. [...]

Two Cow Garage/Jr. Juggernaut Under the Influence 7" Volume 9 stream Stream Two Cow Garage 's cover of Bruce Springsteen's " No Surrender " and Jr. Juggernaut 's cover of Cat Stevens' " Trouble " for the 7" as well as Neil Young's " From Hank to Hendrix " on Suburban Home/Vinyl Collective's latest Under The Influence Series - Under the Influence Volume 9. Pre-order your copy here .

[Joel and Benji Madden celebrate their birthday today, on what apparently is a popular day to be born, judging from the number of reminders on my pesky my social networks. Can we just automate the huzzahs?] It's not his birthday until Saturday, but tonight's installment of Low End Theory at the Airliner is being called the DJ Nobody Drinking Contest. Nobody [pictured], as part of Blank Blue , is performing along with Free Moral Agents . ... That show, along with many others, is making it [...]
Is it just me or has Suburban Home seriously become one of the best record labels around? Another of their excellent recent releases is Jr. Juggernaut's Ghost Posion . Full of hard-driving but twangy country-tinged rock that makes you want to put the top down and drive fast down a dusty gravel road Jr. Juggernaut has a sound that is equal parts Buffalo Tom and Drag The River. Or maybe Husker Du and Uncle Tupelo. Whatever the comparison, Ghost Poison is filled with red-blooded muscle car music but [...]
1 Fascinating: Now and then photos of people who have had the same car for a long time. 2 IGN's 10 Essential Mid-to-Late Nineties Modern Punk Albums : "We've specifically left out bands like Screeching Weasel and The Queers, as we wouldn't classify them so much as pop-punk outfits." Er, what?... 1 Fascinating: Now and then photos of people who have had the same car for a long time. 2 IGN's [...]

As usual I'm late to the party as far as Jr. Juggernaut's Ghost Poison is concerned, I've had it for about a week now but never had the chance to listen to it for one reason or another, I've heard good things about it, and I was hoping they were true…for the most part they were. The only reason I say that is because the album sound like something I heard before, other than that it's just good rock and roll. I really liked the album though, it was fun to listen to and that's pretty much it. [...]