Two fantastic days of music are ahead of us here in NYC this weekend. Academics control my life more and more these days but even I'm planning on taking full advantage. The options:

FRIDAY

Tom Vek plays the Knitting Factory. Tommy was fantastic at the Tribeca Grand in September. If you have any concerns about how his sound might translate to the stage, or how he might handle playing with a band (since he plays it all on We Have Sound), set them aside. Vek's show is a keeper.

APT celebrates their 5th anniversary with a packed line-up of DJ's - Luke Vibert, Tim Sweeney, Roy Dank, James Friedman, and Ben Dietz, all on APT's booming new soundsystem with an open bar from 10-12 in the mix. Vibert is the king of aliases - sometimes he's Wagon Christ, other times he's Plug, but tonight he's just himself and he's spinning an acid set that should be a lot of fun.

SATURDAY

The Fiery Furnaces play Northsix. Their October Town Hall show won decidedly mixed reviews - Jason included - but I actually really liked it. For starters, I'm one of the few that enjoys Rehearsing My Choir and it was pretty cool to see those songs pulled off live (some admittedly more successful than others). But what I really loved about the show were the straight-up versions of the Blueberry Boat songs - "Chris Michaels" and "Quay Cur" were things of joy. I didn't like how the Gallowsbird's Bark songs all sounded the same but the Town Hall, as much as I love it, wasn't the right venue for the Furnaces. They'll be more in their element at Northsix tomorrow night, and under normal conditions I'd totally be there.

Instead, I'll be at Rothko to see Luomo. His last trip to New York found him at the Sullivan Room and the short-lived but dearly departed Volume on weeknights, and I passed both up. They're events I still regret missing, so I'm glad I'll have my chance to atone tomorrow. This will be a live set - if it even approaches the quality of Luomo's recorded output, I will be very happy. Pitchfork's 9.7 review of Vocalcity does a much better job of describing his music than I ever could.

The Super Furry Animals and Caribou play Webster Hall, and Spoon and American Music Club play the new Nokia Theatre. On average nights, these would each easily take the top slot, even though I never really warmed up to Gimme Fiction and I haven't even heard SFA's new one yet. Both bands put on great shows and both openers hold their own.

Also, the WFMU Record Fair will be running all weekend at the Metropolitan Pavilion on 18th St. These were once biannual affairs, but this is the first one since last fall and it'll be another year till the next one - so don't miss out! Tons of music of all types will be available on the cheap. I usually get way too much stuff and then spend weeks working through it all. This year, I just need to stay away from $2 drum n' bass compilations that tempt me and then just gather dust.

-----

I ask for a moment of silence for the motherboard on my old Dell, which went up in smoke on Wednesday. I think I'll be able to recover all my data and I'll have a new Thinkpad next week, so I think this story has a happy ending (checkbooks aside). The more immediate concern is that I haven't been able to listen to the new Kelley Polar album in three days - I need my fix! I hope this album gets good attention when it comes out on Environ on November 15 - I personally can't get enough of it.