Planning Out Your Monday Nights in May...

I've spoken with a few folks at shows recently who are experiencing considerable consternation about which of the free residencies they're going to catch tonight.

And I definitely second that emotion because it means choosing between two of LA's best live acts right now, the wonderfully bedraggled, fall-down-the-stairs pop of Le Switch versus the fuzzy, dreamy, and lush sounds of Mezzanine Owls.

But assuming that you need to see both groups at least once each this month, it's really a question of which night has the best collection of backing bands ... or, in some cases, what other shows might be going on those nights, too.

So here's a list of what each Monday is looking like, that you might plan to see "X" one week and "Y", the other...

Monday, May 5
- Le Switch, Frankel, Amnion, Seasons @ The Echo (FREE)
- Mezzanine Owls, Wait.Think.Fast, Minipop, & In Waves @ Spaceland (FREE)
- Porterville, Mason Reed Acoustic, French Semester, & Honeybreath @ The Silver Lake Lounge (FREE)
- Indie 103.1 Presents Check One… Two w/ Rademacher, The Henry Clay People, Ride on Rides, & I Make This Sound @ The Viper Room
- Tim and Eric Awesome Tour @ Echoplex

DECISION:
This is probably the toughest call of the whole month... On one side, you've got Le Switch w/ thinkin' feller's pop Frankel, the frankly kind of magical act Amnion, and Seasons (haven't seen yet), while the other is Mezzanine Owls w/ the happily loud In Waves, San Francisco dream pop act Minipop, and hard-to-describe-but-good Wait.Think.Fast., who should be performing some of the new material they recently recorded with Aaron Espinoza from Earlimart.

And to complicate it all just a bit more, Rademacher, The Henry Clay People, and I Make This Sound are over at The Viper Room...

Monday, May 12
- Le Switch, Division Day, The Henry Clay People, & Princeton @ The Echo (FREE)
- Indie 103.1 Presents...Check One Two Mondays w/ Film School, Everest, The Savages, & Castaneda @ The Viper Room
- Porterville, Aanchors Aaweigh, Daniel Ahearn, & Legs On Sale @ The Silver Lake Lounge (FREE)
- Mezzanine Owls, We Barbarians, Eagle and Talon, & The Black Kites @ Spaceland (FREE)

DECISION:
Okay. So, this week, there's also Film School, Everest, and The Savages at The Viper Room... That's a fucking amazing line-up, but if you absolutely had to see those acts separately, Film School are playing with Swervedriver and Xu Xu Fang later this month, Everest is playing a free show at Amoeba tomorrow, and The Savages are at our next Let's Independent! event (more on that soon)... But sure, there's a lot to be said for catching them all at once.

Then, playing with Le Switch are the staggeringly good live Division Day, the ubiquitous Henry Clay People, and the pop harmonies of Princeton, while Mezzanine Owls have dream poppers The Black Kites (who we just interviewed -- scroll down), the experimental and fun Eagle & Talon, and We Barbarians (former members of The Colour).

Monday, May 19
- Porterville, Silver Needle, Bang Sugar Bang, & Branden Mayer & The Hidden Powers @ The Silver Lake Lounge (FREE)
- Mezzanine Owls, lovelikefire, The Henry Clay People, Eli Paperboy Reed @ Spaceland (FREE)
- Le Switch, Adeline and The Philistines, I Make This Sound, NapTunes @ The Echo (FREE)
- An Evening with El Perro Del Mar and Lykke Li @ The El Rey
- Destroyer & Devon Williams @ The Troubadour

DECISION:
Mezzanine Owls have a pretty eclectic line-up this week, what with soul singer Eli "Paperboy" Reed, San Francisco's lovelikefire, and the hardest working indie rock band in show business, The Henry Clay People.

Then, Le Switch gots Adeline and The Philistines (which Aaron from Le Switch also plays in with Brian and Stevie from The Movies), the much-liked I Make This Sound, and NapTunes (Le Switch drummer Joe Napolitano's other band).

Meanwhile across town, El Perro Del Mar are playing at The El Rey and Destroyer at The Troubadour.

Monday, May 26
- Mezzanine Owls, The Quarter After, Asteroid 4, EXITMUSIC @ Spaceland (FREE)
- Le Switch, Vanessa Micale, The Minor Canon, & The World Record @ The Echo (FREE)
- Porterville @ The Silver Lake Lounge (FREE)
- Indie 103.1 Presents...Check One Two Mondays w/ Foreign Born, Willoughby, Rides On Rides, & Restaurant @ The Viper Room

DECISION:
And this last week of May, Mezzanine Owls have the breathy and dark EXITMUSIC and Le Switch have really damn good melancholy pop act The Minor Canon and The World Record, who I haven't seen but like what they have online. (I don't know the other bands they're playing with.) And The Viper Room? The ecstatically rocking Foreign Born.

(Photo by Abigail Noveen.)