Thursday 15
Dinky diva Lil’ Kim comes to town tonight. The New York hip-hop hit is back on the road after doing time on Dancing with the Stars and doing time in federal prison. Who’s to say, really, which is worse? No press on an upcoming release or anything since ’05’s Billboard blast The Naked Truth, just a few shows in SFO and here, billed as “an intimate evening with...” So, dress appropriately, and bring lots of costume changes. She’ll meet you at 4th&B. I think the four-foot, elevum-inch firecracker’s dead sexy. Does that make me a fetishist?... SanFran band 60 Watt Kid lights up Casbah with Chicagoans Mahjongg. 60 Watt’s garage is a beautiful mess of swirly ’60s psychedelia and ’70s blues-guitar skronk. The schizo trio’s out to tout their new Absolutely Kosher disc We Live on the Bright Side. Mahjongg, like the game they’re named after, is for old ladies. Just kidding! Lots of people play Mahjongg. Vaginals open.... Else: freaky folkies Still Flyin’, Snuffaluffagus, and Miniature Tree set up at Soda Bar...91X and Belly Up stage a Loudspeaker thing for locals Dead Feather Moon and the Pheromones and Silver Lakers Italian Japanese...and, odd arrangement, this: tonight at SDSU, Brooklyn psych-pop smash MGMT plays the Open Air, while across campus L.A.’s hard-rocking Grammy winners Tool fix the Viejas Arena. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, and parking was a bitch!

Friday 16
Peter and the Wolf’s Red Hunter’s new t’do Traffique pulls into Tin Can Ale House. I’ve always had a soft spot for this cat’s intimate-to-eccentric style. If you’re into heavy-mellow story songs, you would’ve dug it. No idea what Traffique is all about, but Hunter’s got monolithic stage presence, and his Space page says “Traffique will do anything for $50.” I’ll go halves if you want to see him skin a rabbit with his teeth.... Other stuff you may have seen before but might want to see again: pop goes Bar Pink with hot-shit indie kids Get Back Loretta and Wirepony...Whistle Stop schedules live funk by Fire Eaters...Irvine’s hard-rocking Thrice hits House of Blues behind last year’s load Beggars...and Chulo Veestan buzz-saw punx Bumbklaat play a record release for Luctus at Radio Room with Grids in support.

Saturday 17
Hot threes at Casbah Saturday night, as carny rockers Silent Comedy headline sets behind Blackout Party and the Howls. According to brother Jeremiah, Silent Comedy plays “electric blues rock with folk instruments.” They do. And they dress up and they gambol and they put on a helluva show. The new record’s called Common Faults. Check it out: myspace.com/thesilentcomedy.... Else: local batshit-for-cats couple Lion Cut join Superhumanoids from L.A. and Jamuel Saxon to plug in synth-pop at Tin Can Ale House...reggae showman Pato Baton toasts Belly Up with Better Chemistry...OBecian ska-punks Slightly Stoopid stomp on the Cricket...and Harrah’s has a good bet with ’70s soul-pop singers Gladys Knight and Smokey Robinson.

Sunday 18
Fat Wreck Chords labelmates Banner Pilot and Teenage Bottlerocket go off at Casbah. The Laramie-based Bottlerocket signed last year to Fat Wreck for They Came from the Shadows. Sounds like a less serious — way less — Thermals. Check out “Skate or Die”: myspace.com/teenagebottlerocket. Like-minded locals the Bombpops (ironic omg, those girls are not ironic cute) set it up.... The Michael Schenker Group’s 30th anniversary tour hits Brick by Brick with Taz Taylor. Soon as I finish writing this, I’m going to pull out some swap-meet UFO vinyl. Not sure which one it is, but it’s got a sexy cover. This show’s also a kind of CD-release thing for TT’s Big Dumb Rock record. They’ll probably have some pre-releases on hand for you Taz Taylor fans. You have to wonder if Graham Bonnet’ll make an appearance. Then you’ll see some flying V’s!

Monday 19
House of Blues hosts a Casbah-curated joint with Jack White’s other side, Dead Weather. The alt-rocking quartet just released a sophomore set of urban blooze called Sea of Cowards on White’s Third Man Records. Digging Billboard climber “Die by the Drop”.... Anti-Monday? Go hang with pop-rock bohunk songsmith Charlie Mars down on Kettner. Word on the web is he’s steady with Sarah Jessica Parker...or Mary Louise Parker...or Parker Posey...some skinny seasoned starlet.

Tuesday 20
There’s a pre-Con thing at Tin Can Ale House Tuesday night with local drawer Randall Christopher of Bear and Fox comics doing drawerings or something...? I don’t know, that whole world is lost on me. I’m the wrong kind of geek. But surf-jazz bros Mattson 2 might hep it up.... Stuck Uptown? Radio Room dials in Beantown sloppy-punks the Credentials...barroom-rocking Berkeley quintet the Atom Age comes to Ruby Room...and Soda Bar draws a flight of punk-lite with Christmas Island and the appropriately paired Cowabunga Babes and Woah Hunx.

Wednesday 21
Opening day at the races! That means some postrace Friday freebies on the horizon. Why don’t we jot a few down while we’re here: Pinback does the honors opening week on 7-23, the B-52s land August 6, and former Del Martians the Soft Pack will hit it August 13. Lost that Soft Pack disc to my kids right after it came in, but I guess it’s holding water because I can hear it pissing out of their headphones whenever they go skating. That a mixed metaphor?... Anywhich, livemusicwise Wednesday, Metrofique will help U-31’s Peggy Calhoun blow out her birthday candles at the North Park nightspot...Casbah gets all geographical with Chi-town experimental folkies Maps & Atlases and geek-rock Seattleites Globes...and the Poison Control Center inspects Soda Bar. They remind me of some old Drag City act, maybe when Malkmus was a Silver Jew. I know, I love those records too. Check out “Cognac Dreams” and “Being Gone” @ myspace.com/thepcc, and I’ll meet you there. By the by, for a real poison emergency, call 1-800-222-1222. Look, the Crawler’s first public service announcement.
— Barnaby Monk