You've gotta love a kickass show on a Monday night—you know you're actually going to be able to find parking, it won't be disgustingly overcrowded, and you may actually be able to get close to the stage without being a total jerk or setting up camp in the middle of the afternoon. And tonight provides us with quite the little gem: Oakland's Why?, a band whose maturation has resulted in one of the best albums so far in 2008, and Mt. Eerie, a Phil Elverum (of Microphones fame) project now featuring the added talents of Julie Doiron and Fred Squire. Yes, yes, it's going to be quite the evening, and for the embarrassingly economical cost of eight bucks....

Lurking in the near, near future is the album Alopecia, the strange, provocative, and incredibly engaging new album from Why?, a Bay Area band that seems to be ticketed for a whole new bunch of notoriety, right quick. While Why? in the past has often incited listeners to, well, invoke the name of the band--mostly because of scattershot verbosity and music that seemed more pieced-together than refined--they've pulled all their unbridled talent together into a cohesive and coherent, not to mention very good, whole. And, seeming as they're going to be tromping all about Austin's stomping grounds next week for SXSW, we sent out some questions to lead figure and wordsmith Yoni Wolf. You know, just to see what he's all about....