We'll be spending our weekend rounding up the votes for our 2008 WSJR Awards, and we'll announce the winners some time in the middle of next week. And by the way, you can tune in to CNN tonight at 8pm and watch the presidential debates, which thanks to the courage of John McCain (did you know that he was one a POW?), is still on for this evening. Now for shows (sorry we're late today)

FRIDAY

Fleet Foxes | Frank Fairfield (Lola's)
Didn't Fleet Foxes play in Dallas recently? I don't know, I can't keep up with all these indie rock bands anymore. Actually, Fleet Foxes aren't all that bad-- 60's folk and 70's singer/songwriter influences dominate their sound, along with a touch of classic country and a bit of Crosby, Stills and Nash,, and most of their work is quite pleasant and even memorable at times, even if it does absolutely nothing new with the source material from which they arise. After I listened to the second song on their myspace page, I thought "man, I bet these guys are on Sub Pop." Ding ding ding. Spune Productions has been telling people that this show is close to selling out for weeks now, so I'd suggest getting there quite early or buying your tickets in advance, just in case they aren't lying.

The Party (Zubar)
Tonight's Party will be a celebration of the one year anniversary of Collective, a skate shop with personal ties to the Central Booking crew. Free giveaways from the likes of Vans and Red Stripe will apparently be going on all night, and DJ A-1 will be spinning in the back room.

Stay Cool Swag School with Heartstring Stranglers | Young Doc Gooden | Five Easy Pieces (Rubber Gloves)
I heard that the last one of these was pretty much the craziest party that Rubber Gloves has had in a while. And Check out some of Austin Brown's chopped and screwed material on his Myspace.

Parasytic | Tolar | Resigned to Fate | Rocket for Ethiopia (1919 Hemphill)

Laptop Deathmatch (Club Dada)
Three year anniversary featuring a performance from the acclaimed Cygnus, among many others. It appears that they have shortened the format a bit and made it less like a game show, which I think will be a very good thing for this event. You'll hear some very talented local electro producers this evening (they often seem to lean in the direction of IDM) if you decide to venture out.

Culture Prophet | Top Secret Robot Alliance | Keith P | Prince William (The Lounge)
Electro dance group Culture Prophet covers most of the predictably hip dance influences in their music, from dance punk to 90's rave to 80s pop. It is well done, but trust me, you've heard it all before. And sorry, but the jokey German electro pop shtick of Top Secret Robot Alliance is just a bit too goofy for its own good.

Black Keys | Jessica Lea Mayfield (Granada)
SOLD OUT. So I guess you're either going or you aren't.

The Temptations/The Four Tops (Nokia)

Neva Dinova | Colour Revolt | Sybris | McCarthy Trenching (Hailey's)

SATURDAY

Thomas Function | Teenage Cool Kids | Wax Museums | Uptown Bums (715 Panhandle)
Don't have a lot of time to talk at this point, but Thomas Function sounds pretty fantastic actually... nice 60's pop stuff. Listen for yourself. I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up being, like, a "buzz" band or something next year, and I don't mean that as an insult at all. I'm actually shocked that every other local media source in town missed these guys. Wait, no I'm not. Highly recommended.

Dead C Documentary (Rubber Gloves)
Will Kapinos' final project at UNT's film school deals with legendary New Zealand band the Dead C, and here is a little description of the film. Should be very good:

The Dead C. made a rare U.S. appearance at the Sonic Youth-curated All Tomorrows Parties festival in Los Angeles, CA on 17 March 2002. The festival was the first show of a three-day mini-tour through LA and San Francisco to promote their album New Electric Music, the second release on their own Language Recordings imprint. This documentary features two complete performances, the first from the ATP festival and a set from the following night at The Smell, a small downtown experimental music venue. Both performances are as different from each other as the Dead C. are different from anyone else in the history of punk rock/avant-garde/free noise music. This concert film provides a rare up-close look at one of the most unique and mysterious bands to ever emerge from New Zealand.

Decadance with Faux Fox | Sydney Confirm | Tigerfight! (Fallout Lounge)

Neko Case | Giant Sand (Granada)

SUNDAY

Rival Gang | The Heartstring Stranglers | Febrifuge (Swiss House)
A solid and fairly mellow show will be taking place at Swiss House until Rival Gang gets up there and does, uh, what they do. It involves a flying V I think. Get there early to check out the chronically undernoticed Febrifuge. Is that even a word? Not according to blogger it isn't.

Cola Freaks | Black Time | Wax Museums | Secret Bangs | Bad Sports (Muscle Beach, 907 Denton St.)
Very solid garage punk show this evening starring Denmark's (oops) Cola Freaks, a band that seems to take a good deal of influence from fellow Australians The Saints while injecting a dose of classic garage rock into the mix. And oh yeah, be sure to check out some tracks from Denton's excellent Secret Bangs, particularly "Violent Love" on their Myspace page-- nice keyboard attack in there with some "wait, is this really a local band" vocals. Sounds promising.

Lazy Magnet | Pro Bro Gold | Animal Forces | Aunt's Analog (House of Tinnitus)
Check out the drugged and deranged abstract 90's rave inspired dance stuff from Pro Bro Gold... sort of a change of pace for Tinnitus and very interesting. Too bad I have to miss this one. :-(