It's 7 degrees out right now. Why do we subject ourselves to this, this Ice Station Zebra weather? Meanwhile, my friends in sunny LA and south Florida are chuckling to themselves while they walk along the ocean in their shorts...

Anyway, it's cold outside but it's a hot weekend for shows (How's that for a catchy segue?). Tonight at Sokol Underground it's the Capgun Coup CD release show with Bear Country, Outlaw Con Bandana and Flamboyant Gods. Capgun Coup count Archers of Loaf and Pavement as influences. Yeah, that sounds about right. The track I'm listening to now, "Adorable Doorsteps," is a cute go-go rocker with lots of people yelping in the background, as if it were recorded during a party in the band's basement. Bear Country is a 6-piece with a lot of local buzz for their style of acoustic indie featuring male and female lead vocals. You already know about Outlaw Con Bandana. $7, 8 p.m. (Note earlier start time).

Also tonight, over at O'Leaver's, Midwest Dilemma plays with Paleo and Run On Sentence. $5, 9 p.m. More info here.

Tomorrow night is the grand and glorious goodbye to Someday Never Productions at O'Leaver's with Race for Titles, Ideal Cleaners and Rent Money Big. The event will likely be the subject of next week's Lazy-i column. Show up and maybe you'll end up in print. Considering everything that Joe Vavak has done for the music scene over the past decade, the least you can do is show up and say goodbye. $5, 9:30 p.m.

But if you never liked Joe (and who doesn't? Just kidding...), there are other options tomorrow night, specifically at The 49'r where Prostitute, Life After Laserdisque and Thunder Power will be playing, starting at around 10 p.m. $5 gets you in.

That's all I got, but that's enough for this weekend. I'll leave you with this new photo of the Slowdown construction project (click here). I figured I'd take a pic before the big snowstorm slides into town this weekend and wreaks havoc on the construction crews who are feverishly trying to button up the site before the real deep freeze moves in. They've been lucky with the weather so far, lucky enough to stay on schedule for a summer launch.