Two weekends from now, electro-rockers Shiny Toy Guns appear at the nifty new Club Nokia. They’ve come a long way since their early demos garnered attention in 2005 while the band was stewing in LA’s underground and generating buzz via myspace.

From Mick O via Creative Commons

While their hit single “Le Disko” (last.fm) was a sexy, nuanced call to arms (and to the dancefloor) from the heart of an underage robot, their new(ish) single “Ricochet” (last.fm) has all the roaring velocity of a straight-up rock stadium classic on overdrive. There’s a palpable change.

Amidst bandmember switcharoos and the almost-inevitable loss-of-cabin-pressure the occurs when a small, green band gets signed & shot into the stratosphere, they’ve kept writing & hung tight. The result is a new album, “Season of Poison,” that is technically stronger than–if lacking the home-run kismet–of “We Are Pilots,” their first album.

We have more than tickets to give away–one grand prize winner will get a pair of tickets, access to the exclusive VIP lounge (21+) with meet & greet, a copy of their latest CD “Season of Poison” and an autographed Shiny Toy Guns-Goldenvoice poster. Saweeeet. Check behind the jump for how to win.

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Hawaiian dacenhall-punk-poppers Pepper bring their dance-inducing bubble-hop-rasta to  Club Nokia in downtown LA. Along with hybrids Shwayze, who graft turntablism, hip-hop & singer-songwriter styles together, this should be a great show, supported by The Supervillians and Passafire. People who always say “I like all kinds of music. Except country,” will prolly really enjoy this one.

Want in? Tell me what you think the most bizarre musical style-blend could be: klezmer with New Wave? Cumbia with Tuvan throat singing? Opera and hyphy? We’ll pick a couple winners to go rock out at the show.

Hey guys! The super-awesome Raveonettes appear this Saturday at the Fonda with The Soft Pack (formerly known as The Muslims) and former Metblogs author DJ Travis Keller. Now we know you’re all planning on coming to the Classic Eats dinner that night, but may we suggest this as after-dinner entertainment? I think we may.

Wanna go? Leave a clever play-on-words band name (real or made-up) in the comments and we’ll pick a few lucky winners. Here’s info on the show if you wanna buy tix.

This Saturday one of my favorite bands, one of LA’s most iconic bands, and one of the most important bands in music history play downtown at the disturbingly-sparkly LA Live complex at the newly opened Club Nokia. I was down there for the Oasis show the other week and they’d just lit all the holiday lights and while it was very pretty and a raver wonderland with all the blinky “icicles” on the trees, it was also strangely devoid of public seating like benches and such. Hmm.

But I digress. I’ve loved Cracker since I first heard them in my sophomore year of high school. X really captures so much of the spirit of this city, and I found them around the same time. It was actually significantly longer before I heard of the New York Dolls (my music education began in earnest around my junior year, and I didn’t discover classic proto-punk until college…very sad).

So, this show should kick ass. If you can weave a little yarn, tell me a good story in the comments below–about your discovery of either of the bands, when it was, and how it made you feel (think of me as your music therapist)–well, we’ll pick a few winners to go to the show, where you can stand around a lot outside and watch the blinky lights before you go in.

Grand Ole Opry alums and generally kickass dudes the Old Crow Medicine Show bring their bluegrassy cavalcade of Americana, alt-country awesomeness to the Fonda tomorrow night.  And we haz ticketz! You won’t be able to resist the toe-tapping, barnstorming brilliance of these young guys who play old-timey tunes with humor and charm. And did I mention they’re…well…kinda hot? They’re kinda hot.

To win a pair of tickets, tell me your favorite weird Appalachian musical instrument. You know–jug, washboard, spoons, bones, weird hybrid stringed instruments, whatever.  We’ll randomly pick a few winners to go to the show. Please no “Deliverance” jokes. Yay!

Or you can just buy tickets yourself here.

We’re just chock-full of FREE STUFF lately! In addition to Stereolab, below, I’ve got tickets & cds for Dar Williams’ show at the El Rey tomorrow. This cutie patootie will be onstage with the charming Shawn Mullins. Isn’t she just adorable?! You know you want to go. Enter your favorite silly nickname (“Dar” was Mullins’ sister’s mispronunciation of “Dorothy”) in the comments & if you win we’ll give you tickets & a cd. Info on the show is here.

The much-loved OG’s of the alt-rock scene are back and playing LA tomorrow with Richard Swift and Monade, at the Fonda. We’ve got tickets & CDs to give away, so if you enter a comment below telling me what an alternative-rockin’ OG you yourself are, I might give them to you. Info on the show is here.

Indie-emo-folky songstress Canucks Tegan & Sara visit our smoky city of LA for a couple shows this week, playing the Fonda on the 16th along with City & Colour (who are rad) and Girl In A Coma. And we’ve got a few pairs of tix (plus CDs!) to give away to a few lucky winners! Ta dah! The catch? You gotta write me a haiku. Ayup. The misses Tegan & Sara bust their asses getting all wordsmithy for us–the least you can do is reciprocate. Write me the cleverest (is that even a word?) haiku you can imagine in the comments below. Best haiku win tickets. Simple as that!

Here, I’ll start:

Haiku are real neat
But sometimes they make no sense
Refrigerator

Aw!

So Okkervil River has to be one of my favorite bands EVAR and you can bet on seeing me wearing my platforms in the front row through Sea Wolf (who I also LOVE, especially mad props to Lisa) and staying firmly planted there, refusing to be supplanted by taller folks, until the headliner goes on. (Even with the platforms everyone is still taller than me. Why do all you tall boys insist on wedging in right in front of short girls? fuck you.) I’ve actually never seen these folks live–years ago they came to the Silverlake Lounge but couldn’t play at the last minute, so instead some band called The 88 played. They were pretty good.   ;)

Anyhoo, I’m fresh out of creative ways for you to win tickets to this awesome show so how about you just tell me what a big fan you are & how much you want tickets? I’ll pick the most lovelorn Okkervil-worshippers.

Look! They can fly too!

Founded by ex-Gogol Bordello member Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat of Firewater, Balkan Beat Box is one of those irresistible can’t-stop-dancing bands that brings together disparate types of music from across the globe to create a polyglot sound that activates every dormant aural-receptor in your brain. Plus they bring hot bellydancing chicks to their shows! Woo! They play with Deleon at the El Rey on the 9th.

And we’ve got tix! Just tell me your favorite “world” or “fusion” artist in the comments, along with your email address so I can reach you when you win. See? Easy peasy.

Or if you’re just not clever enough to comment, you can buy tix here.

Hieroglyphics (that’s the hip hop collective started by Del tha Funkee Homosapien in the 90s) is touring with Blue Scholars, Knobody, Musab & Prince Ali. These guys are serious classics in the hip-hop timeline with a die-hard fanbase. Wanna go? We’ve got your tickets into their show at the El Rey this Saturday the 12th.

To win, just enter a comment telling me what Egyptian hieroglyph you’d create if you could add to that pictorial library: I might add a couple wavy lines to indicate “bacon,” or an * inside an O for “bicycle,” or a rudimentary drawing of a leash for “Silver Lake dog walker.” Get it? Now you.

Oh, don’t forget to put your email into the comment form so I can contact you if you win.