The Mountain Goats are in town, playing Neumo’s with Jeffery Lewis (who Eric posted about yesterday). Eric also interrogated Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle this week:

Do you still get pegged as “lo-fi” even though it’s been years and albums since the Mountain Goats recorded to cassette? If so, does that bother you?

Let me answer this question with a question: Have you ever dreamt of getting your dishes done and lawn mowed by a singer-songwriter dude? Because I will do it. Because I love this question just that much. Because yes, people persist in calling our records “lo-fi.” I spent all my home-recording years pointing out that “lo-fi” was a really stupid term, and then we went into a studio and recorded Tallahassee with Tony Doogan (Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai), and we thought, “Wow, this sounds quite different.” But still, I could show you reviews that called that album “lower than lo-fi.” I can guarantee you that people will ask me questions about the lo-fi sound of Heretic Pride before the day is over. It happens every album, and it’s been eight years since I released anything recorded into a boom box.

Cobblestone Jazz play Nectar tonight, and they’re this week’s Bug in the Bassbin pick:

Most electronic shows are about as exciting to watch as data entry. Sure, there’s sometimes engaging video work, but by and large, going out to a “show” means either watching someone casually mix records or lazily twiddle knobs. Admittedly, such performances are usually meant as a call to action (dance!), so it’s refreshing to have acts like Cobblestone Jazz bridging the gap between live performance and dance party.

Also… Speaker Speaker celebrate the release of their new record at the Vera Project:

Speaker Speaker, the Lonely Forest, Lake of Falcons, Hungry Pines (Vera Project) In 2006, Speaker Speaker won $2,000 (and some gear from Gibson) in The Stranger’s Big Shot! competition. That summer, they used their prize money to cross the country to Baltimore, Maryland, and record their debut full-length with former-Jawbox-frontman-turned-producer J. Robbins, who’s worked with the Promise Ring, the Dismemberment Plan, and many others. It was a perfect fit and a dream come true for the band. On Call It Off, Robbins brings out the distorted, abrasive side of Speaker Speaker’s quick and clean pop-punk-circa-Berkeley-1994 sound. The band have had to sit on the album for almost two years while they found a label (Burning Building) and went on a few tours. But tonight, Call It Off is finally being released to all those fans the band have amassed during their refusal to, heh, call it off. And not to steal the spotlight from them (as they’re tonight’s stars), but openers Hungry Pines are a fantastically blissed-out shoegaze-meets-Pixies band if the Pixies were fronted by Chrissie Hynde instead of big ol’ Frank Black. Their new record should be out later this spring. MEGAN SELING