Thank God It's Thursday: We Choose Shows So You Don't Have To

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​Don't know where to go this weekend? Heard Mentality makes it easy--here's the rundown of great music coming to town. Friday, June 4
On Friday evening Miike Snow, one of our featured artists in this week's issue, touches down at the Fox Theatre in Pomona as part of a series of Southern California dates. Tickets are $20. (If you can't make it, the band will also be on Jimmy Kimmel's show tonight.) The trio are a classic example of journeymen musicians finding new contexts-singer Andrew Wyatt first made a mark with the A. M. a while back while Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg wrote and produced any number of big pop hits over the past decade, notably Britney's "Toxic." The end result's been something else again.
 

That same evening, Orange County's own Voxhaul Broadcast, our Locals Only featured act this week, headlines at the Gypsy Lounge in Lake Forest, part of a bill with Jameson, Big Bad Wolf and Honeypie ($8 tickets). The quartet aren't shy at all about their express goal of pumping more frenetic energy into a too often true stereotype of indie rock as politely pretty rambles and their self-summary as 'fuzzy guitars and Motown soul' nicely hits the mark with their goals. With a debut album due for release later in the year, they'll doubtless be firing up a few cuts from it at this show. .
 

Saturday, June 5
Saturday night brings LCD Soundsystem to the Fox Theatre with Holy Ghost! as openers. Led by non-more-knowledgeably-musically-obsessive James Murphy, LCD Soundsystem has been a critical hit from the start thanks to both his wry wit clearly covering a soft heart and his ear for killer performances, with any number of dance and rock combinations constantly reorganized into a series of astonishing singles and albums. He's been talking about this being the end of the band as we've come to know it so catch them now while you can before the forces of nature--or just costumed weirdos--do them in first:
 


Also on Saturday, the Middle East--the band, not the current spot where humanity's worst impulses are once again on display--will be appearing at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa. The Australian group have had a full if not slightly fraught career already for a group that's only released an album, then split up, got back together and rereleased part of the album as an EP, but said release, The Recordings of the Middle East, ended up being the lucky ticket, showcasing a now-familiar but in the band's hands still enjoyable blend of falsetto singing, lush orchestrations and, when desired, pumped up drama.