In a few hours, throaty troubadour Jeff Klein plays a final hometown show before heading off with Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan to the ends of the earth (and, beyond that, Portland). Like Dulli, his mentor, Klein is in the business of sustaining the Great American Break-Up Song by wrapping it in chain-maille and dousing it in all varieties of kerosene and rye. But Dulli excels at pulp and back-alleys and big, fat crimes that make the street cleaners work overtime. Maybe Klein can walk and talk like a (hard-boiled) duck, but he still has a soft underbelly. No one ever seems to die in his songs, they just live through hell; and regardless of what side he’s on, Klein always writes with compassion, even for the most sinister would-be femme fatales. ...

Blitzen Trapper Wild Mountain Nation (Lidkercow Ltd.) Folksy but freakish Portlanders Blitzen Trapper have yet to be scooped up by Zach Braff, but that's probably only because they're still on the fringes of too weird. Yet, between soothing and familiar odes to old Grateful Dead tunes and powerful plays towards anti-genre adorableness, the odd sextet manage to capture the listener's attention while totally defying their own. Eccentric, playful and genuine songs fuse 70's goofball......

FRIDAY [9] [music] Shellac, The New Year at Emo's (link) [music] Twilight Singers w. Mark Lanegan, Afterhours, Jeff Klein at The Parish Room (link) [music] The Late Fees at End of an Ear (6pm) (link) [music] Sons of Hercules, Jesus Christ Superfly (15th Anniversary!) at Beerland (link) [music/danceparty] Waxploitation! at Red's Scoot Inn (9:30pm) (link) [music] The Beer Garden Series presents South Austin Jug Band at Threadgill's World HQ (link) [dance] A Place to Land......