We get a lot of weird phone calls at BWHQ. Everything from people claiming that China is censoring their access to our Web video to conspiracy theories about cat nip to offers to do a profile on someone's pair of lesbian snakes.

In honor of mash-up guru Girl Talk's visit to the Knitting Factory on Monday, May 28, we decided to mash up the audio of Gregg Gillis' BW interview with one of those crazy phone messages and put it to a beat in GarageBand. Then we decided to put it behind a video of our slick "moves." (Notice the strategically placed quotemarks.)

And in honor of his style, we didn't tell Gillis about it.

So, let this be a warning to all the crazy folks out there just itching to leave us a voicemail: We will put your weird phone message to a beat and inflict our dance moves upon it. So think twice before drunk dialing BW about the alien artifacts you found in your back yard while trying to dig a hole to China that would serve as a tax-free shipping lane because you're tired of the government monitoring your turnip farm with black helicopters.

Portland, Ore., folk-punker Langhorne Slim packed The Linen Building when he came through Boise in 2010.

It was a boisterous performance, though not quite the boxing-ring pillow fight and dance party depicted in the new video for his song, "The Way We Move," which you can see below.

Unfortunately, Slim doesn't currently have any tour dates booked to return to Boise at the moment. Maybe someone ought to get on that.

Joe Buck, ex-bass player for Hank Williams III, blew through Boise to play two sets at The Shredder Saturday night.

For the first, his solo project Joe Buck Yourself, he took a seat behind a well-stickered kick drum with a vintage Gibson and growled out a selection of sparse and grungy evil country songs that sounded like Scott H. Biram gone off the deep end. Buck made heavy use of dynamics to give the songs a drama beyond their worth. Loud, soft, loud, steady and then furious. The steady thud of his kick drum was trance-like.

Much of the effect had to do with Buck's facial expressions. In the light of day, he looks like a punk-rock Golem. But bathed in a red stage light, he looked positively terrifying, especially as his gaze scoured the audience like he was deciding which one to eat.

"I guess I ought to just keep playing songs about killing motherfuckers," Buck said after a brief lyrical foray into drinking songs.

Between the light and the steady thump of the drum echoing off the cinder block walls of The Shredder, the whole scene almost felt like a dream sequence filmed by David Lynch.

When his solo act concluded, Buck picked up his old standup bass and played a set with Florida band Viva la Vox.

Viva la Vox wasn't shy about complex swinging rhythms, twangy guitars or guttural howls like the kind you would expect from Tom Waits caught in a bear trap. They growled and snarled like Gogol Bordello run through a blender. Between the general carnival atmosphere and attire of the band—and the kazoo it had rigged into a trombone—it was not hard to imagine the band animated into a Tim Burton movie.

Most of the crowd had left by the time Viva la Vox hit the stage. But it played an encore for the dozen or so people who demanded one.

"Idaho is beautiful," the band said from the stage. "But don't worry, we won't tell anyone."

"Tell everyone," someone shouted back.

• Andrew Crisp
• Isaac McRoberts, aka 2nicorn, created tracks via a Nintendo GameBoy and a Casiotone.

Boise band Spondee's EP release party fully embraced the all-ages creedo on Saturday, May 19.

Fifteen-year-old opener Isaac McRoberts, aka 2'nicorns, may be the youngest act to date to grace the stage at The Crux, the downtown coffeeshop and all-ages venue. Armed with a Casiotone and a Nintendo GameBoy, McRoberts queued up eight-bit tracks overlaid by his nervously quaking vocals.

"I bought the GameBoy cartridge online; you can use it to make music," said McRoberts.

"Yeah, I was nervous. My heart was pounding. I've been playing music for about two or three years. This was my second show ever, with my first at the Colorcube."

His first show took place back in January, before the all-ages venue near Boise State closed its doors after a short run. Former Colorcube co-proprietor Clint Vickery is also the frontman of Boise band Spondee.

Following McRoberts came two more openers, local singer-songwriter Seth Graham and accompanying band and sextet The Very Most. The former provided a number of original tracks, as well as covers of Coldplay songs like "Fix You." The latter roused best with a cover of a track from the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox.

In the bowels of the cave-like Neurolux on May 17, Chicago, Ill., Margot and the Nuclear So and So's returned to Boise for a post-apocalyptic rock show.

Opening the evening was Los Angeles, Calif., singer-songwriter Morgan Nagler under the Whispertown moniker, sometimes referred to as Whispertown2000 when accompanied by Vanessa Corbala. At Neurolux, Nagler provided whispery vocals atop guitar by Tod Adrian Wisenbaker, serving the audience best when Casey Wisenbaker took the stage to fill out the sound with a second guitar.

The smattering of fans hugging the stage swelled as Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Dinosaur Feathers took the stage. After playing the Treefort music fest in March, the gang released Whistle Tips in April, following up on the success of its inaugural 2010 release Fantasy Memorial.

Dinosaur Feathers' sound has morphed from early world music influences. While it once settled on the best of sounds from the '60s and '70s, it's evolved into big chunky guitar chords and catchy refrains. Gone is the harmonizing typified on "Teenage Whore," the sound Treefort fans remember from Dinosaur Feathers' last set at the Red Room.

Conspicuously missing was Derek "Duck" Zimmerman on keys, who is also missing from the band's new tracks, and whose absence creates a different stage presence. Instead of the Beatles-era strumming at waist level, guitarist Greg Sullo and bassist Ryan Michael Kiley jumped and kicked about the stage as though rousing a punk rock crowd.

But the audience roared loudest for Margot and the Nuclear So and So's, filling the dance floor quickly, the bar far busier than a typical Thursday night.

The sextet incorporated three guitarists, keyboards, drums, vocals and a tambourine, filling out the live iterations of tracks from the 2012 Rot Gut, Domestic. The result were big, brassy vocals and rock refrains, and while six is sometimes too many, the gang let each element bleed in naturally.

"I will haunt you like a ghost," crooned frontman Richard Edwards on "Broadripple is Burning," one of few slow eddies in the band's frenetic set. The entire group was lit from below by stage lights, appearing as shimmering apparitions.

Margot and Co. fell flat only with their encore, which belabored through a final track played far too slowly.

The typical age of people who play in Led Zeppelin tribute bands hovers around 50.

But not the musicians rocking out in the Tribute to Led Zeppelin at the Venue on Saturday, May 19, at 7 p.m. Eagle's School of Rock is hosting the event, which will feature apprentice axe-wielders shredding classic Zeppelin songs.

Started in Philadelphia in 1998, School of Rock has now opened almost 80 schools across the nation and a handful in Mexico. The school teaches through performance-based methods, getting students to play instruments in front of live audiences as soon as possible, while instructors sneak in music theory.

The School of Rock movie starring Jack Black that came out in 2004 has no affiliation with the school, but it has been great PR.

“It did wonders for us publicly," said Henly Kim, Eagle School of Rock general manager. "After that movie, everyone was looking for a school of rock.”

A portion of the proceeds from the show will go toward sending Eagle student Nick Long on the 2012 School of Rock West Coast All-Star Tour this summer. The 17-year-old has been involved in the School of Rock for more than a year and has emerged as a strong mentor for other students.

In past All-Star tours, young musicians have performed at events like Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits, playing alongside K.T. Tunstall, Alice Cooper, Michael Anthony and several others.

Tickets to the Led Zeppelin tribute on May 19 cost $7 in advance and $10 at the door.

Make sure you've got some money in your bank account and your Internet connection is running smoothly, because Friday, May 18, at 10 a.m., tickets are going on sale for a handful of big-name shows at the Idaho Botanical Garden's Outlaw Field Summer Concert Series

Down-to-earth country singer Lyle Lovett will take the Idaho Botanical Garden stage on Tuesday, July 17. Lovett came out with a new album, Release Me, earlier this year. The record is filled mostly with covers, like Chuck Berry’s “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man” and Eric Taylor’s “Understand You.” Lovett’s gentle tunes will fill the evening air starting at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $50.

Counting Crows will follow Lovett on Monday, Aug. 6. Counting Crows released its new album, Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation), on April 12. The show starts at 6 p.m. and tickets cost $45.

Jane’s Addiction will take the outdoor stage on Wednesday, Aug. 29. Despite its rocky past as a band, overcoming multiple break-ups and drug addictions, the group is back together and will bring a darker, heavier sound to the Outlaw Field Summer Concert Series. Tickets cost $40, and the show begins at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets for all three of these concerts can be purchased by calling 1-877-435-9849 or online at ticketfly.com.

UPDATE: Thursday, May 17 at 3:29 p.m.

Here We Go Magic is back on. The band was offered a TV gig that originally conflicted with its Boise show, but then the TV gig was moved.

Also, this happened to the band. Fo' realsies.

The show will still be at Reef instead of The Linen Building.

Here We Go Magic has canceled its Boise show on Thursday, May 24. The band has been offered a TV opportunity that conflicts with the show.

The rest of the bands on the bill will still play, though the show has been moved from the Linen Building to Reef. Tartufi and Hospitality will rock out with headliners Yeah Great Fine from Portland, Ore. The band's happy, Vampire Weekend-esque sounds should mesh perfectly with the rest of the set.

Doors open at 9 p.m. The show costs $5 at the door and is 21-and-older.

While the bill at Knitting Factory on May 14 promised punk rock via seasoned vets Social Distortion, the evening wrapped up with odes to Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins.

Opening with a vocal tremor, the lovely Lindi Ortega kicked the evening off in a pair of bright red cowgirl boots. Ortega's sounds soon swelled to occupy the entire building. Her most rousing track served as a sexy, tongue-in-cheek public service announcement against substance abuse with lyrics like: "Don't use alcohol / don't use crack / don't use cigarettes / they'll turn your lungs black ... If you want to get your fix, darling, use me."

Ortega's talent caught an audience that was prepped for punk off guard, but only briefly.

Gauging by the unscientific barometer of the crowd's cheering, many in attendance at the sold-out show were as stoked for Toadies as Social Distortion. The Fort Worth, Texas, quartet dealt chunky guitar chords and smoky barroom vocals from its three previous albums and its 2010 release, Feeler, which band members pitched often as being for sale at the merch table. While Toadies fans were engaged, new ears were largely unswayed because of the band's buttoned-up stage presence while playing solid punk rock and psychobilly tracks.

Flying liquid is characteristic of punk rock shows—be it saliva, sweat, water or booze thrown indiscriminately. But even before Fullerton, Calif.'s Social Distortion took the stage, the metal surfaces and pipes of the Knitting Factory perspired in the humidity of a room full of humans, errantly dripping onto the crowd.

Social D's 50-year-old lead singer Mike Ness was the key fixture of the evening. Ness took the stage in his usual brash fashion—doffed in a white collared shirt, suspenders and a fedora—and opened with classics like "Story of My Life" and "I Was Wrong," the creedo of the band's down-and-out punk.

The group shied away from new songs, playing only "Machine Gun Blues" and "Bakersfield" off its 2011 self-produced release, Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes.

After the first half of the band's set, slicked with sweat, Ness paused to address the crowd:

"Let's get a look at this crowd here in downtown Boise," he said. "Great to be here, ladies and gentlemen. Had a day off here yesterday, went to Goldy's, got some pancakes. I was worthless for the rest of the day, man, worthless."

Social Distortion brought the evening to a close with an encore performance, slowing things down with a track by Tennessee rockabilly legend Carl Perkins. The band finished its set with the crowd chanting the lyrics to Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." Ness reaffixed his fedora and left the stage after a final refrain.

• Patrick Sweeney
• The playlist from Social Distortion's Boise show.

• Liz Flyntz
• Beach House's new album, Bloom, drops Tuesday, May 15.

Dreamy melodies from new albums by Beach House and Best Coast will fill the air at the Record Exchange today in celebration of the albums' official releases.

It's hard not to enter a relaxed, hammock-swaying mood when listening to Beach House's new album, Bloom. But while it's easy to drift off listening to Beach House's gentle, calming songs, Best Coast's new album, The Only Place, will wake you up and get you pumped for all the best parts of summer: floating the river, biking the Greenbelt and playing in parks.

The Record Exchange will host a day-long listening party of the two new albums from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a special treat to end the event. The RX will raffle off a rare glow-in-the-dark vinyl version of Bloom and an autographed Best Coast poster. You can enter to win one of those fabulous prizes by purchasing one or both new albums today, but you must be present at 5 p.m. to claim your prize.

And there's more. The Record Exchange is also handing out free Best Coast 7-inch singles and Beach House litho prints with purchase, while supplies last.