The top 5 shows of the coming week

The big news this week is that the greatest day of the year is happening this Saturday: Record Store Day! If you’re a vinyl nerd like I am, you probably already have your list made up of some of the rare titles that will only be made available on this day. Click here to see our in-house list, and here to see what’s happening at all of the participating stores in Montreal.

Okay, vinyl fetishism aside, here’s the gigs that have all of the kids screaming crikey.

Saturday: After making your haul at Record Store Day you can peel yourself away from the turntable long enough to check out the blackened doom of NYC’s Blackout with the always rad Show of Bedlam and epic, cinematic decibel blasters Near Grey at Turbo Haus. 1180 St-Antoine W. #408, 8 p.m., $7 in advance at Sound Central/$10

Sunday: Continuing in the doom and gloom side on the Sabbath, you can catch Kadavar with Sons of Huns, Montreal’s occultish doom of Cauchemar and High Spirits at Petit Campus. 57 Prince-Arthur E., 8 p.m., $15/$18

Monday: Outside of the actual playing of music with your friends, being in a band can be heartbreaking but every now and again you do get served up a fastball that you can put some lumber behind. In my case, my band is going to open for one of my favorite all time bands ever Loop. These U.K. psych-bashers were handed the torch by Spacemen 3 and certainly did their country proud before Britpop happened along and ruined everything. After a 20-year hiatus, they’re back and the footage I saw of them headlining the recent Roadburn festival was proof that they’re still on top of their game. This will be going down at Sala. Bring earplugs and drugs. 4848 St-Laurent, 8 p.m., $12

Speaking of psych, you can also catch the garagey psych-punk of the always raucous and rowdy Black Lips with hefty support from Natural Child and Red Mass at the Corona Theatre. Prepare to call in sick for work on Tuesday. (Enter a contest to win a pair of tickets for this show, here.) 2490 Notre-Dame W., 8 p.m., $20/$23

Wednesday: If it wasn’t already obvious that it’s a psych and doom kinda week, one of Montreal via Toronto’s greatest psych rocket Yamantaka // Sonic Titan will seriously fuck up some heads at Il Motore, with Perfect Pussy, Green Dreams and Lungbutter. 179 Jean-Talon W., 9 p.m., $10/$13

Current Obsession: Dr. John, Gris Gris

jonathan.cummins@gmail.com