When I learned the Austin, TX band Shurman would play a half block from my house in a bar that never has music, it seemed providential. Like cosmic UPS delivery. I almost expected a comet over the Red Garter, or roses raising its foundation.

Humble but mighty, the restaurant and bar has a main room clad in fake-blond-wood-paneling, covered with a neon, mirrored or animated sign for every commercial beer known to ESPN. It's right-sized and comfy, but who knew it could sound good? On Wednesday (a Wednesday!) Shurman sat at the south end on bar stools and played and told road stories for all the world like they belonged there.

Turns out a guy knows a guy. A local musician and friend of the band, who is also friendly with one of the Garter's owners, scored the gig for Shurman as a pit-stop on the road to Puerto Peñasco with Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers' annual Circus Mexicus tour. Luck had it that the stop was timely: The cost and inconvenience of a detour via Pep Boys for a new wheel bearing was a running joke through the set. Merch was moved.

More words and music, and an essential list, after the jump.

I understand that there are people who enjoy the music of Neko Case, even if I'm still holding a deep, mildly irrational grudge against her more than three years after her "social vampires" rant in the New York Times Magazine, so here's a teaser for her new album, the ungainly titled The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You.

It's Friday, so what better way to celebrate than with the music of Montreal-based husband and wife synth-dance act Lime's "Babe We're Gonna Love Tonight"?

A selection from the band's fascinating Wikipedia entry:

Lime was a synthpop group from Montréal, Canada, during the 1980s. The group was composed of husband and wife Denis and Denyse LePage, although two younger and more attractive singers, Joy Dorris and Chris Marsh, were chosen to tour and appear as the act. Later, Rob Hubertz replaced Chris Marsh. Joy Dorris and Rob Hubertz continue to perform today. They are most noted for their songs "Angel Eyes" (1983) and "Your Love" (1981 #1 US Dance). "Your Love" was featured in the 1982 movie Summer Lovers...There were rumors that Denis and Denyse were in fact one person and Denis LePage did both vocals, a deep vocal for Denis and a falsetto type voice for Denyse...Denis LePage continues to release records as the transsexual act Nini Nobless.

As far as I can tell, Superchunk haven't played Tucson since an incredible show at the DPC in 1994 with Polvo and the Weird Lovemakers. Sure, some of that time, the group was on hiatus, so there's some excuse, but in 2013, as they get ready to release a new album (I Hate Music, the first single "F.O.H." is above) in August and the group is playing a bunch of dates this summer (sadly without Laura on bass, since she's suffering from ear issues), it's time to bring one of America's greatest indie rock bands back to town. We should haven't to head to Los Angeles and struggle to get tickets to a show at the El Rey, right?

Someone make this happen, not just for me, but for Tucson and humanity.

Wilco invited Tucson's own Calexico onstage to add some trumpet and accordion to Woody Guthrie's "California Stars" at the Nelsonville Music Festival on June 1.

You can see Calexico's Jacob Valenzuela and Martin Wenk bring some trumpets to "I'm The Man Who Loves You" at JamBase.

Some of us are lucky to have handymen in our lives who just happen to have drills in their car trunks for helping put up artwork and such.

Some of us can never return the favor, except in poetry (which they better like, dammit) ... which is why I love this new Billy Bragg song from his Tooth and Nail album.

Step-ladder trust fall, anyone? Isn't all of life a step-ladder trust fall? You bet.

Grammy award-winner Juanes performed at the Anselmo Valencia Amphitheater Thursday night for the latest stop on his Loud and Unplugged Tour, playing a great mix of both new songs and deep cuts from earlier in his career.

Opening for Juanes was a new, up-and-coming singer, Raquel Sofia. Sofia, comparable at times to La Mari, of the flamenco-electronic group Chambao, has a great stage presence — her music is certainly worth the time it would take to seek out.

Juanes opened his portion with his classic song "Fíjate Bien." and continued to play a mix of songs from every album including the song "Fotografía" with Sofia joining to sing Nelly Furtado's lyrics. Juanes also sang his own rendition to Bob Marley’s “Could You Be Loved."

His concert was electrifying and overall a great show. If anyone had doubts whether Juanes was losing his edge after releasing his last album P.A.R.C.E., which definitely was not his best work, would be happy to know he hasn't.

Juanes is back and ready to rock out.

• Noelle Haro-Gomez
• Colombian rocker Juanes.

• Noelle Haro-Gomez
• Juanes rocking out.

• Noelle Haro-Gomez
• Juanes

In what happens to be one of the coolest art projects I've seen in quite some time, "Years" takes a modified record player and a thin slice of a tree, and combines them to form something...well, amazing:

YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo.

Why yes, that old turntable IS playing the rings of a tree. From Traubeck.com, a description of the piece:

A tree’s year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that outputs piano music. It is mapped to a scale which is again defined by the overall appearance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to light texture). The foundation for the music is certainly found in the defined ruleset of programming and hardware setup, but the data acquired from every tree interprets this ruleset very differently.

[h/t: the Daily What]

Spicy, sweet, hot, funny, giddy — the rich and happy mood of chattering diners clustered with friends could be felt almost upon opening the door to Café Desta, packed as it was with fans of avant indie chamber music on the verge of a historic event. Chris Black’s original Tucson vision, Chamberlab, was turning one year old, and celebrants anticipated an evening of the gang’s greatest hits, delicious as the spirit and the company of its culinary overture.

Program, players and lots of pictures after the jump.

• C. Elliott
• Chamberlab performed for a charmed, SRO audience at Café Desta Saturday night.

It's no secret I'm a huge fan of Devo. In anticipation of their show at the Rialto tonight (tickets still available!), I though't I'd share my 10 favorite Devo tracks.

10. Space Junk/Q:Are We Not Men? A:We Are Devo!

A fragmented and paranoid tale of falling space debris and a particularly unlucky girl named Sally. Skylab fell out of the sky and landed over parts of Western Australia in 1979, a year after this album was released.

9. That's Good/Oh, No! It's Devo

Devo on full-on synthpop mode. An upbeat song about the joys of bland conformity. So upbeat in fact that the "Bad Boys" from San Francisco used it for their dance routine in the 1987 Crystal Light National Aerobic Championship. I don't think they were in on the joke.

8. Gut Feeling (Slap Your Mammy)/Q:Are We Not Men? A:We Are Devo!

Probably the best intro of any Devo song. Imagine if the Autobahn was placed smack-dab in the middle of Ohio. People tend to forget that Devo is a damn good guitar band.

7. Come Back Jonee/Q:Are We Not Men? A:We Are Devo!

Again, Devo being a great "rock" band is often forgotten. Devo takes the cars 'n' girls songs of rock and roll's past to its next logical step. What happens when you're having too much fun and you're driving a little too fast? Come back, indeed.

6. Red Eye Express/Duty Now for the Future

If I had to pick a favorite Devo album, it would have to be Duty Now for the Future. Their second album, this is when they struck the perfect balance between the guitar and synthesizer. Red Eye Express is the album's closer and includes some of my favorite off-the-the-wall lyrics. "Something's flattened my cola/something's wrong with my brew/something's rotten in Idaho/and I don't know what to do."

5. Booji Boy's Funeral/Hardcore Devo Volume 2

R.I.P. young man. Taken from the incomparable Hardcore Devo Volume 2, the second installation of Devo's raw and humble beginnings.

4. Mongoloid/Q:Are We Not Men? A:We Are Devo!

The tale of a man who had one chromosome too many. He wore a hat, he had a job and he brought home the bacon, so no one knew. Years before David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Devo peels away the layers of suburban blandess and finds mutants running amok. The music is ominous, spooky and robotic, and like "Gut Feeling" it also has a stellar intro.

3. I Desire/Oh, No! It's Devo

In a career full of subversiveness and pulling media-savvy pranks, this might be the crown jewel in the Energy Dome. Lyrics are credited to "Casale/Hinckley/Mothersbaugh". Who's Hinckley? None other than John Hinkcley, Jr., the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan to impress Jodie Foster, living out some sort of sick Taxi Driver fantasy. Some of the lyrics are taken from the love poems Hinckley Jr. wrote to Ms. Foster. How they snuck this past Warner Bros. is beyond me. Does this mean Hinckley Jr. receives royalties?

2. Jocko Homo/Single

The Devo Manifesto. Planet of the Apes meets crazed religious sermons meets Revenge of the Nerds.

1. Beautiful World/New Traditionalists

The moment Devo realized devolution has caught up with modern society and there's no going back. It's a somber, almost melancholy track that's full of spite. "Beautiful people everywhere/they way they show they care/it's a beautiful world/for you/it's not for me."