Three “I can’t believe how many folks have not been to the Empty Bottle despite liking music” reasons to, if that is the case, go to the Empty Bottle this very evening…

1. Alabama’s Thomas Function play pop music. In today’s world, we’d have a tendency to slap the garage label on it but listen to it. This is good old indie pop a la a band you’ve never heard of but I will cite none the less, Sportsguitar. Thomas Function is the sound of guitars, bass, and drums, sometimes fuzzy, sometimes cleaner, played with pop sensibilities. It seems so simple yet alludes so many. Kudos Thomas Function, kudos.

2. Chicago’s Other Minds (with Mary from The Runnies on keys) play 60′s garage pop with early Pink Floyd leanings. You know, before Floyd started employing saxophones and back-up singers and boring the shit out of me. (Editor’s Note: Fuck you, Meyerson.) When psychedelia had a kind of childish charm. Other Minds do this well. Really very well. Don’t take my word. Or do. My words know what they are talking about.

3. Chicago’s Black Math are an odd fit on this bill but oddly fit. More inclined to new wave than garage, their goth sound at times employs Siouxsie And The Banshees vocals but, sue me if I’m wrong, one might hear a little 60′s girl group hidden under layers of lo-fi reverb. All three bands, it seems, use similar approaches to tackle very different eras.

9:30 p.m. Wednesday, 4/28. Empty Bottle. 21+. $5 advanced. $10 door.