While I’m in Chicago this weekend for a bachelor party (woot!), my fellow Phoenicians have a plethora of shows from which to choose.

TONIGHT:
The Album Leaf with Lymbyc Systym and Back Ted N-Ted at the Brickhouse in Phoenix.

• The Album Leaf | Always For You
• Lymbyc Systym | Truth Skull

SUNDAY:
Voxtrot with Au Revoir Simone and Futurekind at Anderson’s Fifth Estate in Scottsdale.

• Voxtrot | Kid Gloves
• Au Revoir Simone | A Violent Yet Flammable World

MONDAY:
Blue Scholars and Common Market at the Hidden House in Phoenix or Sparta at the Clubhouse in Tempe.

• Blue Scholars | Inkwell (Crashed Cop Car Remix) (peep the familiar sample)
• Sparta | Taking Back Control

I’d listened to Albert Hammond’s Yours to Keep just a few times via Rhapsody, and, even though I really like it, I kept my expectations for his live show in check. Needless to say, he was outstanding, skinny/white jeans notwithstanding. (Also, the vest-with-T-shirt look is so in right now.)

Maybe there’s nothing to it, but should we read anything into the Strokes taking the year off and Hammond’s burgeoning solo career being so well-received? He insists that isn’t the case.

More on Hammond to come, including a possible entry into the I Used to Love H.E.R. series.

• Albert Hammond Jr. | Cartoon Music for Superheroes

This might very well be the first (and last?) post here ever on TV on the Radio. See, my boy Royce is crazy about ’em, and I’ve tried to get into ’em and it just hasn’t stuck the way I (or he) had hoped. Whenever I offer the dismissive shrug followed by “eh,” I get the evil eye.

So, this one is for Royce, who could use your donations as he grows something sort of resembling a mustache for a good cause.

TV on the Radio played the fantastic Amoeba Records in Hollywood on Sept. 22, 2006. A four-song EP has been released, and I snagged it after racking up some Stinkweeds credit for a minor cleansing of unwanted CDs.

Buy the EP at (where else?) Amoeba.

• TV on the Radio | Wolf Like Me (live at Amoeba)

View some video and interview footage, courtesy of Amoeba.

I talked a little about Stateless back in August 2005, when the group was hustling its Bloodstream EP.

I’m happy to say now Stateless has a full-length ready for release, a self-titled effort coming out June 19 on !K7. If you’re the type who likes to play name association (as I sometimes am), Stateless singer Chris James spent a good chunk of last year – 70 shows in 19 countries – touring with the great DJ Shadow (James appeared on Erase You on Shadow’s The Outsider).

On the Stateless LP, you can sense a little bit of Shadow rubbing off – pretty soundscapes punctuated by drums, both live and programmed. Mostly, Stateless (from Leeds) seamlessly blends classic piano sounds with more modern collage techniques of sampling and turntablism. It’s a tricky balance, and one the group pulls off with nary a glitch on tracks like Exit, the lead single, and Down Here, one of those songs I’m all too eager to tell friends about and put on mixes.

• Stateless | Exit
• Stateless | Down Here (studio session)

(Two more stripped-down versions of songs – Horizon and Running Out – available on the group’s Web site.)

NME posted the tracklisting for UNKLE’s forthcoming album, War Stories, due July 24 in the U.S. Guests on the album include Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age, Ian Astbury of the Cult and the Duke Spirit.

More info on pre-ordering and such at the group’s MySpace.

Tracklisting:

1. Intro
2. Chemistry
3. Hold My Hand
4. Restless (feat. Josh Homme)
5. Keys To The Kingdom (feat. Gavin Clark)
6. Price You Pay
7. Burn My Shadow (feat. Ian Astbury)
8. May Day (feat. The Duke Spirit)
9. Persons & Machinery (feat. Autolux)
10. Twilight (feat. 3D)
11. Morning Rage
12. Lawless
13. Broken (feat. Gavin Clark)
14. When Things Explode (feat. Ian Astbury)

It’s probably time to talk about this album because I’ve been obsessed with it the past couple of weeks. This here is not cutting-edge blogging, seeing as how it was released in March, but you understand, don’t you?

No matter, sometimes it takes time for a record to reveal itself. And I’m not sure what made me check it out – though I think the sorta creepy-cool cover had something to do with it. The Ponys also rolled through Phoenix a few weeks ago with Deerhunter and, alas, I missed it due to work obligations. I think the regret made my want burn more.

And now Turn the Lights Out is one of my favorites of the year. (To recap, favorites of the year so far include: Low, Drums and Guns; El-P, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead; The National, Boxer; Busdriver, RoadKillOvercoat; and, now, the Ponys, Turn the Lights Out.) Knowing nothing of the Ponys’ previous efforts, I also was intrigued that a friend, who plays in punk-rock buzzsaw Tokyo Electron, talked up the Ponys; I’d figured our musical tastes were somewhat divergent, and here we’d found a common ground, some meeting point between his taste of punk and mine of hazy, guitar rock.

I guess, in a way, that sums up what I like about the record: The tempo and energy just about approach its punk roots, but it always pulls back into swirling, gray-cloud guitars. Chunky synths and distortion are the name of the game here: reverb, reverb and a little more reverb.

• The Ponys | Double Vision

Daytrotter hosted a session with the Ponys in March.

Matador has another mp3 available for Poser Psychotic, about which singer Jered Gummere explains to Daytrotter: “To sum this one up, it’s basically about people who act crazy even though they’re not, so people think there is this really crazy cool artist when they’re just a fucking poser.”

And if anyone has the unreleased Festival Ghost, I’d be in your debt if it were to magically appear in my e-mail inbox.

Travis is streaming its new album, The Boy With No Name, due out this Tuesday, on its MySpace page.

I picked up the CD single (for 99 cents!) for Closer, which contains two B-sides: The Day Today and This Love. I haven’t had time to fully digest it, but I’m really liking the lead single. There’s always such a hopeful exuberance about Fran Healy’s songwriting.

It’s cheesy, maybe. But it’s also a beautiful departure from the mopey, woe-is-me heartbreak.

• Travis | Closer

Much to my surprise, guitarist/singer Ross Flournoy of the Broken West e-mailed me to say thanks for the posts and “featuring so much of our stuff.” Very cool.

He also mentioned that a fan recorded a show the band played recently in Seattle. Says Flournoy, “He had a super-pro set-up so the sound is incredible…I think it’s by far the best sounding live recording we’ve been able to get thus far.”

With that, he attached an mp3 of Big City from said show. They’ve made it available on MySpace, so I’ll just keep on spreading the goods.

Also, the band has picked up dates with the National for some West Coast dates in June. Closest they’re coming to Phoenix? San Diego on June 25 or Los Angeles on June 26. Road trip, anyone?

• The Broken West | Big City (live in Seattle)