FRIDAY

Social Junk | Big Nurse | Voyant | Dirty Diamond | Wu Fru De Lu & Ruuu P. vs. Space Dragon Killah (907 Denton St.): Returning touring act Social Junk is a duo that has been compared to Savage Republic as well as The Dead C, though I certainly hear much more of the latter in their open rumbling, with various electronics and more traditional instruments creating a purposefully elusive atmosphere.
Big Nurse has a simple enough setup consisting of drums, guitars, and sax, but create long-winded psyche noise passages of feedback and distortion.
Voyant is a one man "anti-digital age" harsh noise project, while Dirty Diamond combines various local musicians behind the Denton legend known as Sloan, and if his show (and post show) antics are any indication, he could very well go down as one of the area's most anarchic front-men since Bobby Soxx. Dirty Diamond plays a sublimable mix of disco and metal, with the music shifting in and out of the sonic signposts of each genre, while manipulating their cliches. Wu Fru etc. still has the toughest name I've ever had to decipher in many days of writing.

Hands Up! with LA Riots and The Party (The Loft)
Central Booking welcomes LA Riots to the Loft this evening. LA Riots seem to spin this sort of unclassifiable hipster driven twist on the often misunderstood concept of Balearic, which was originally understood as a complete disregard for genre constraints. They'll play everything from Weezer mash ups to Hot Chip remixes, with a heavy emphasis on pop.

The Smoke 5th Year Anniversary (Sons of Hermann Hall)
The smoke Mod dance night has been around for five years, which is longer than any other monthly music event in Dallas I can think of. And seeing as how most people have trouble getting Dallas crowds to go out to one single event no matter what it is, you have to tip your hat to these guys. The music and DJs are great, even if the crowd can be a little, how should I put this, effete.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (Club Dada)
Get ready everyone. Some people around town have predicted that this will be the night Deep Ellum comes back and returns to its former glory, all because a washed up group of has beens is playing an all acoustic set for $20 just a couple months after they played for free a few blocks away. I think my favorite part of Deep Ellum is the shithead parking lot owners who still position guys with flags in their lots to attempt to charge people $10 to park when 75% of all the meters on any given Deep Ellum street are open. As Jerry Seinfeld says, "good luck with alllll that."

Will Johnson | Chris Flemmons | Michael Hill (Dan's Silverleaf)
I used to know this chick who had a crush on Will Johnson and often commented on the fact that she liked the way he rolled up his jeans. Apparently her boyfriend at the time started trying to roll up his jeans too in order to score some cool points, but she hated when he did it because, in her words, "it's only cute when Will Johnson does it." Is that weird?

Coheed and Cambria | Secret Machines | Russian Circles (House of Blues)
If someone forces you to go to this show tonight, I have a little game you can play in order to pass the time: decide who is the bigger douche-- the afro guy from Coheed or those brothers from Secret Machines. I'm sure Coheed is a lot worse to hang out with, but Secret Machines bros are in the running because they actually think we respect them, you know? I used to think I liked that first Secret Machines album for a little while too, so I guess everyone makes mistakes.

SATURDAY

Big Daddy Kane | Strange Fruit Project | Little Brother (Granada)
Do I really have to explain why Big Daddy Kane rules? Ok, just read this.

Reverse X Rays | Farah | Disqo Disco(Swiss House)
I'm glad Evan Horn realized how much Tommy Boy's outdoor set contributed to the proceedings at the last Swiss House party, because it was the best show I'd ever been to at that place by far. Lot's of other people seemed to agree with me too, because it was probably the most crowded and lively I've ever seen it over there. Should be another good one tonight with Disqo Disco spinning outside and Farah playing some of her new material inside (Check out "Sinned" on her myspace). Headlining the show is popular Austin DIY act Reverse X Rays, who might remind you of groups like Pere Ubu, Liquid Liquid, A Certain Ratio, and maybe a little of early Talking Heads and James Chance. Pretty good.

Phantastes | The Frenz | Florene | Darktown Strutters (Hailey's)
The Frenz are playing the first of a handful of shows outside of Dallas, and this is a solid, diverse lineup of Denton's most challenging artists sharing the bill. Florene (in a split with Verulf) recently got knocked pretty hard in an online review, that was actually a pretty interesting read. Don't sweat it guys, those collective ego bruises build character, though in some cases they turn you into crying manchildren. Depends who you are. Um, either way, support local music!

Screen Printing Party with Sydney Confirm and Schwa (House of Dang)
Starts at 730.

Fight Bite | Nouns Group | Fake Blood (Good Records)
I'm sure everyone knows about the two bigger groups playing this show by now, but I'll tell you that Fight Bite is celebrating their CD release, and stuff starts at 6 pm. I also hear very good things about Fake Blood (quite noisy from what I understand) but I haven't had the chance to listen myself.

Violent Messiah | Tolar (Traphouse, 4610 Bradshaw, Dallas)
We don't know a lot about this show, other than the fact that Ft. Worth's Tolar plays sort of a strange mixture of grindcore and who knows how many different subgenres of metal. They're pretty good too. Hey, at least we gave you the address. Starts at 7pm, and rumors of keg(s) are spreading.

Chris Flemmons | Issac Hawkins | Brent Best (All Good Cafe)

Will Johnson | Micah P. Hinson | Emil Rapstine (Doublewide)