Tonight: Deerhunter (!!!) and Times New Viking at Emo's

Okay, Deerhunter, Deerhunter, Deerhunter. Where oh where do we begin to discuss such a spectacular, unclassifiable, confounding, excellent, inexplicable act? Do we begin with Bradford Cox, the impossibly lanky (read: lanky like crazy lanky) frontman? The frontman who maintains what quite likely is music's most accidentally inflammatory blog, and who puts his ever-honest foot into his mouth on a regular basis? The frontman who has been known to wear sundresses while performing, and is prone to bouts of both joy and breakdown? The frontman who is amazingly generous to his fans, and who is so prolific that he wrote three whole albums this year? Or do we begin with those albums themselves, two of which were released under the Deerhunter name? That Microcastle is practically unquestionable in its quality, and seems likely to find itself near the top of many best-of lists? Or that its companion album, Weird Era Cont., a supposed toss-in, is pretty fine itself? Or do we discuss the very good band, beyond its idiosyncratic lead singer? Or should we just cut the questions altogether and just say we circled this date on the calendar three months ago?

We'll go with that. And another reason why this date got circle-action is that opening up is a trio who's no slouch themselves, Ohio slop-rockers Times New Viking. That powerful lo-fi bunch of racketmakers were pretty prolific themselves this year, releasing a strong LP early on and following it up just recently with a perhaps stronger EP. And for those who've seen them before, or have had one of their songs pop up in a shuffle rotation on iTunes, you know they can make some really, really loud loudness, and with some rough and awesome hooks thrown in, just for good measure. Add them to Deerhunter, with effortless Los Angeles dream-dancers Nite Jewel starting off the eve, and it should be a hella good way to spend a Tuesday night, even if the word OUTSIDE means, friends, wear a coat, please.