As many surely know by now, Kate Voegele is a whipsmart young songwriter whose hits on MySpace have been heard everywhere, from rock radio to late night TV to a seemingly endless rotation on "One Tree Hill". Only 22, Voegele has managed to do quite a lot since Michelle Branch's roadie, in a twist of fate, handed her demo to a Warner Brothers exec years ago. She's since opened for John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, John Mayer, and the Counting Crows, among others, and now she and her full band are taking their massive headlining tour to our humble stomping grounds. Life imitates art for Kate Voegele, and her smart, sunny anthems will guide you out of the summer doldrums into the new school year.

With new record "Only Through the Pain" , LA's TRAPT continue their quest to pen the perfect alternative radio rock anthem . Their punchy alt-punk takes cues from the Foo Fighters and more motivational bands like Lifehouse, even Journey, to deliver openly forlorn and grinding rock and roll. There's real pain in Chris Taylor Brown's moody rock, but he's a dude who can balance the good and band within the topsy turvy call and response of his emotions. The show's going to be good and loud. Take someone along.

Trapt will be filming a video on this night, by the way.

Calhoun are a fantastic, Fort Worth-based indie pop quintet with a penchant for pastoral melodies and elegant song structures that recall anyone from the Shins to Radiohead to Sunset Rubdown to the Strokes. Ever heard of 'em? With songs as smart as they are earnest, Calhoun are carving a path in the North Texas scene that just recently earned them "Best Songwriters" in the Fort Worth Weekly. Tonight, they celebrate the official release of their fantastic, Stuart Sikes-produced “Falter. Waver. Cultivate” record at the Loft accompanied by area up-and-comers Bryan Greenberg and Smile Smile, no slouches themselves.

Over the past nine years, Pinback's Rob Crow and Zach Smith have earned a reputation as devout melody makers. Their 2007 offering Autumn Of The Seraphs, however, is undoubtedly the duo's most sonically adventurous outing yet. Their trademark, a paradox of passion and self-containment, is markedly more crisp, more immediate, and actualized to the absolute fullest.

Harp said "Pinback never forgets pop's first rule: It's the hooks, stupid."

Must be the hooks?

Doors @ 8p.m. • Tickets $14 in advance. $16 day of show.

Yes, hello. The Spazmatics.

The Spazmatics are here again. Did you want other news? How come?

Tonight, you will hear many flawless covers and you will very likely like them all. They cover a lot of ground, those Spazmatics, and with much aplomb, we might add.

Keep it for real.

Come early.

This show would be very fashionable overseas, and Dallas should be abuzz over the imminent presence of these electroclash pioneers. In 2000, the sexy Parisian DJ, Caroline Herve aka Miss Kittin, made a massive splash basically all over the world behind her influential collaboration with the Hacker, First Album. That very Euro record combined Kittin's sultry, deadpan vox and the Hacker's electroclash beats to form a revelatory mix of camp, Detroit techno, and new wave that helped shape the sound of club music this decade. After collaborations with Felix da Housecat, Golden Boy, and Chicks on Speed, and an instrumental LP that showed off her DJ skills, she is back to flirting with electrolash behind 2008's Batbox, a phenomenal little record that showcases Miss Kittin's tuneful penchant for German techno and Joy Division.

Let's get something out in the open right here right now, this is going to be wet and dirty. And good. Way too good. Be a dove and give the Frenchies a warm welcome. NVR FRGT YALL.

Doors @ 7:30p.m. • Tickets TBA

In our latest offering of dance-oriented indie bands here at the Loft, we give you The Juan MacLean, a New York city four-piece (fronted by main man, John MacLean) that carries the torch of their brethren, LCD Soundsystem, straight through the ranks of the DFA's impeccable, House-heavy groove marathon. A few years ago, we might not have been so lucky to have a show such as this, but you can't mess with fate, yall. It never quits. John had abandoned his post with Providence dance-punk group Six Finger Satellite to pursue teaching until DFA founder, James Murphy, had his way and persuaded John to move to the Big Apple to work on the Chicago House. They had a good talk and now we have all these fantastic grooves, including the recent The Future Will Come EP that features the rad club hit, "Happy House."

Before too long, they'll be turning the Loft into a House all the same and we very much look forward to seeing you there.

Doors @ 10p.m. • Tickets $12 in advance. $14 day of show.

Recent Barsuk signees Ra Ra Riot are quirky even by the "anything goes" standards of modern day rock. That's not because they're a weird band, but it's because they know their instruments like true pros and can mix strings with Moogs and dance beats and produce some of the smartest songs you'll hear all year. No wonder every major music outlet, British or American, has been onto these guys for some time. Ra Ra Riot's debut, The Rhumb Line, will arrive in mid-August, so you should have plenty of time to polish up on their brooding jams before they make the Loft. Fun!

This show's really a three-for-one deal. The Morning Benders and Walter Meego are also super tight -- surely not just "openers" -- so get their early make an evening of it.

Doors @ 8:30p.m. • Tickets $10 in advance. $12 day of show.

What's in a name? Los Angeles' Shiny Toy Guns wield synths and distorted guitars over a thick electronic stew for a catchy and sometimes aggressive reinvention of NIN-like rock that's beginning to make serious waves in the music world. Employing many weapons of choice, Shiny Toy Guns are true masters of drama unafraid to craft dark, brooding tunes with the loud-soft-loud climactic ebb and flow made so famous by their forefathers. This year, we will see the release of their "Season of Poison" LP, an evolution of the group's sound that's already been in heavy rotation on FUSE TV.

We'll see you there.

Nikka Costa was a global sensation probably well before you ever heard of her. The daughter of famous veteran producer Don Costa (and goddaughter of Frank Sinatra) spent her youth globetrotting between LA, Japan, and Europe before topping the German charts in her teens and ultimately settling down in Australia, where she became a big deal in her mid-twenties. In 2000 and 2001, Costa's super raw single, “Like A Feather” propelled her to huge, newfound success in the States that left her in a leagueof soul all her own. This year, Costa will release "Pebble to a Pearl", a collection of tunes that builds on her sultry funk proclivities and establishes this sexy redhead as a tour de force in the world of adult, urban rock, funk and soul. Nikka brings it to the stage unlike almost anybody we’ve ever seen. So find someone and take them along for the ride.

You may have seen A Place to Bury Strangers opening for NIN, or read about them on Pitchfork Media, or seen them at SXSW, or read about them in Spin and purchased their self-titled record because it's super ill. However which way, these Brooklyn natives will find a way to turn their psychedelic new wave into trance-inducing nirvana when their roadshow hits the Loft come mid-October.

Openers the Sian Alice Group are much softer and more experimental than their touring partners. Taking cues from groups like Stereolab and My Bloody Valentine, among many others, the UK quintet sounds much smaller and reserved than their size would suggest. Sian Alice's tunes are expansive, but full of space, linear, yet structurally all over the place.

With local indie heroes Red Monroe opening, it's going to be a splendid time. A full course meal, if you will.

Doors @ 8:30p.m. • Tickets $10 in advance. $12 day of show.

When Robert Pollard put his legendary Guided by Voices to rest in 2004, no one believed for a second that he was gone. Everyone knows that dude doesn't quit. Seven albums later -- yes, seven since 2004 -- we now have the Boston Spaceships, Pollard's latest supergroup/distraction that just so happens to feature a few ex-GBVers. Behind Brown Submarine, their first album together, Pollard and Co. stay very true to form. Hooky, Lennon-esque melodies accompany a backdrop of lo-fi fuzz and Pollard's characteristically alcohol-fueled witticisms to form yet another collection that will only further his place in the indie canon. Productive as he may be, he's also meticulously consistent, even when the minute-long noise experiments just come and go.

Pollard has always been outstanding live, and this will be no different. You'd be crazy to miss this legend when he's in our midst.

Doors @ 8:30p.m. • Tickets $14 in advance. $16 day of show.

Everlast is a guy who's found success with each new exploration in a career that takes as far back as 1990, when he was a member of Ice-T's Rhyme Syndicate Cartel. That was just a phase. Then there was House of Pain and the ubiquitous "Jump Around" which put him on the global map and in countless ads, movies, etc. When that famously proud Irish hip-hop trio fizzled out when they couldn't repeat earlier successes, Erik Schrody returned in 1998 as Everlast. With the huge-selling "Whitey Ford Sings the Blues", the dude had done mad soul-searching and returned with thoughtful acoustic rap perhaps most apparent in the smash single "What It's Like." This year Everlast will drop a direct reflection on that debut with "Love, War, and the Ghost of Whitey Ford", a collection of rap-influenced mood rock with denser arrangements and a brilliant cover of "Folsolm Prison Blues". See what it's all about when he hits the Loft this fall.

A name doesn't always say it all. Dredging up a darker reality, but not over-burdening the ears with overly aggressive angst or shrill vox, Dredg take cues from the likes of Incubus and Deftones to fashion a very dense, often times dramatic and experimental space that's neither too loud nor too soft. Since releasing their Live at the Fillmore collection in 2006, Dredg has been quietly working in the studio on their next record for Interscope, a set that will not no doubt find the alternative San Francisco group digesting their influences into one more thought-provoking masterpiece.

The indie pop outfit Uh Huh Her don't wear their PJ Harvey influence on their chest as much as one might expect and, instead, traverse a lush world of Ladytron meets Annie Lennox new wave, something more reminiscent of Annie with a Cure/Kelly Clarkson bent rather than what you’d expect of the Eurythmics. Uh Huh Her's tunes project a warm romance and glistening pop sensibility that will be extremely radio friendly once the right ears take note. We say that only because this year's "Common Reaction" on the right now sounds like an undiscovered and accomplished gem with certifiable hit potential all over it. More power to this dynamic LA duo for being so authentic and bl0ggable, yall. See them at the Loft so you can say you saw them when...

Hometown alt rockers Miser busted on the scene last year with a raucous cover of The Cranberries' "Zombie", a reinterpretation of the radio classic that put these dudes on the national radar and earned them a big slot at last year's Edgefest. Chock full of original material, this year's just released self-titled record fleshes out what was only hinted at in their breakthrough and exhibits an arsenal of chops and rock and roll melancholy that should only take them to uncharted new realms.

Kathleen Edwards rides a fine line between pop and alt-country that’s somewhat confounding given her versatility and undeniable potential. Country roots shape everything the Canadian songstress has ever done, but her dapper looks and vocal range/songs/influences suggest there might be a more conventional pop star beneath the veil. Regardless of what she does next, this year's "Asking for Flowers" is her best release to date – as you probably know by now -- a pensive, lovelorn affair that shows off uncanny melodies and an extremely mature sense of alt-country songcraft. The record, produced by Whiskeytown’s producer, has an airy self-awareness that unravels the depths of Edwards' irrefutable talents and opens doors for who knows what’s next. We are terribly excited to have her here at a little old place called the Loft.

The King Khan & BBQ Show is the most revered band in their scene, and there are many reasons why. It all started in 2003, BBQ visiting King Khan, and jamming out their black magick in his Nazi-bunker rehearsal space. Songs flowed endlessly like blood from a cancerous abcess. They took it easy, honing their craft, playing sporadically to crowds outraged by their incredible sound and nasty live show. Orgiastic, anarchic, hypnotic and personal are the shows to this day. Blow-jobs and blood, pick-ups and puke, dancing and laughing. Two guys. Mark Sultan (BBQ), smashing snare, bass drum and tambourine with his bare feet, molesting his guitar and singing like a possessed angel. He is often cited as having one of the finest voices (think Sam Cooke) and greatest songcraft in the world. The other, King Khan, is nearing legendary status for his advanced nuttiness and unpredictability, as well as top-notch showmanship and musicianship. He spins and howls like a freak while belting it out on his guitar like a masher. What does it all sound like? It sounds like five men. Really. And it is very difficult to peg the sound. It really is a cross-section of amazing bands, places and energies. This is soul. This is punk. This is psychedelic. And who do you think started this whole sock-hop/doo-wop revival? Sultan and Khan. This is the Death Cult. This is ROCK'N'ROLL. The show? A mess. Tear-jerking love songs, punkers, improvised riot-starters, dance-floor shakers, sing-along stompers, wild rockers – you name it. They always drench the crowd in raw energy, and they’re always the last ones dancing and drinking at the bar. They are international antiheroes and rock'n'roll ambassadors of the highest calibre. They've toured from Europe to Brazil to Israel to outer space and beyond, because they are two spiritual, intelligent icons on a very specific mission. It is obvious that they are true blood-brothers of the telepathic order. Yin and yang. Complete opposites. Real, real tight. And very capable comics. The two were even asked to co-host their own show in Canada. (via the Windish Agency)

Atlanta's Deerhunter, darlings of Pitchfork and 42% of all music critics, are nothing if not polarizing, yet are a band unquestionably all the more memorable for it. Fronted by Atlas Sound's Bradford Cox, Deerhunter's mystifying, highly productive recorded output takes noticeable cues from My Bloody Valentine, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and Brian Eno, among others, but does not rely on rehashed influences to makes it mark. Not wont to rest on their laurels, Deerhunter is, in fact, a band with a seemingly endless palette of ideas and an ambition that will likely fend off the apathy that often times sours “next big thing” type acts. After a show in NYC, Stereogum once declared Cox to be one of the most enthralling, dynamic performers in music today. After Atlas Sound's stellar "Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel", released in February, and Deerhunter’s recently dropped "Microcastle", also remarkable, it's hard to argue otherwise. These dudes are just insanely talented and live shows are reported to be legendary.

Openers Times New Viking are no slouches in their own right.

Remember to see them before the winter in early December.