Yes, we know y'all are all worn out after wetting your pants eight times at the sight of Stephin Merritt, but let's hope a second, post-Gothic Archies wind comes your way, as there's plenty more top-choice music in town to be had after you escape Frisco. Tonight, for example, sees the arrival of the lovely disaffected electro dance-pop of Ladytron at the Gypsy Tea Ballroom, with none other than Cansei Ser Sexy opening. The only bad thing about this show is it occurs simultaneously as Dutch wonders Bettie Serveert serve up their moody indie pop in the Tea Room. Geez, it's like the United Nations of hipster music under that roof.
If you like it more local, the White Drugs kick it MC5 style, all cacophonous drums and greased lightening guitar licks (they co-bill with Blackheart Society at the Double-wide). Country-freak fetishists, meantime, will no doubt head to Grapevine to the Palace Theater Arts Center for the legendary, acerbic honky tonk of Ray Wylie Hubbard. Japanese fetishists will no doubt enjoy the straight-ahead punk chops of Gito Gito Hustler, a quartet of Joan Jett-Shonen Knife disciples from Tokyo gracing the Darkside Lounge stage.
On Saturday: How much do we love Teenage Symphony? We love them a lot. With their harmony-sprinkled pop weirdness, as fun and cozy as rolling around on a shag carpet as Pet Sounds plays in the background, we don't understand why they aren't the next national critics' love a la the Polyphonic Spree. Oh well, that means we get them all to ourselves for a bit, until they are discovered by Pitchfork, and they play for free tonight at J&J's Pizza in Denton. And, of course, if you want to find the band that was Ladytron before Ladytron was Ladytron, the Pet Shop Boys headline at the Nokia Theater. No "West End Girls" jokes allowed. --Jonanna Widner
