FRIDAY: >> In case you missed Chapel Hill’s The Old Ceremony (pictured) last time they were in town, they’ll be at the Rock and Roll Hotel tonight with Junior League, Unwed Sailor and John Pringle. We’ve raved in the past about lead singer Django Haskins’ Nick Cave-meets-Ben Folds stage presence, and since then we’ve picked up their 2006 release Our One Mistake. If you can’t make the show, we highly suggest giving them a listen…

A couple of weeks back, we found ourselves at IOTA paying $10 to see two bands we were previously unfamiliar with (Iowa City’s Death Ships and Chapel Hill’s The Old Ceremony). The experience left us feeling satisfied and slightly adventurous. We wanted to make a regular habit of checking out bands based on 30-second clips and “borrowed” tracks from elbo.ws. And that’s partly why we were at IOTA last night to see mellow Canadian folksters…

A lot of effort goes into attending a concert — paying outrageously high ticket prices, figuring out transportation and putting up with obnoxious crowds are the first things that come to mind. This is why we tend to reserve our hard-earned dollars for those bands we really like. But something drew us to the ‘burbs last night to see Chapel Hill’s The Old Ceremony at IOTA, a band we weren’t entirely familiar with. In the…

MONDAY >> Remember the days when you couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing the Goo Goo Dolls’ hit single “Name”? Yeah, we drink heavily to forget it, too. Well, it turns out the boys named Goo are headlining the 9:30 Club two nights in a row with Augustana. Maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on them; both nights are sold out. >> Steven Tyler of Aerosmith fame is going to be rocking the George…

FRIDAY: >> Seattle singer-songwriter Rosie Thomas is recording a new album with Sufjan Stevens, has toured with both James Mercer and Sam Bean, and we wouldn’t be shocked if she had “Sub Pop” tatooed on her butt. There’s no arguing she’s got the street cred to draw a crowd tonight at Jammin’ Java in Vienna. But Thomas also has a penchant for exploring topics (and melodies) that seem to place her more in the “sometimes…