Another week, another Mercury music section to ignore as you are struck dumb, blind, and paralyzed by the unrelenting horribleness that is Van Halen's latest opus. Good god, this is worse than the out-of-tune video I posted earlier. The lying liars at Prefix, bafflingly, say it is "not terrible," which means you never, ever have to pay attention to anything Prefix says ever again.

Forest Park—is it a park? Is it a forest? It is both!—plays two shows this weekend to celebrate the release of their new EP: a free show with special guests on Friday, and an all-ages early show on Saturday. Also, their songs are really long, like this one:
LISTEN:

Forest Park - "Golden"

Big Ass Boombox is a brand new, fantastic sounding, mostly all ages, mini-fest of 20 local bands right in the heart of downtown. And it won't cost you a single red cent. (Or brown, or whatever color cents are.)

Nasalrod brings together a legendary drummer, a balls-out frontman, and the magic of Axel Foley.
LISTEN:

Nasalrod - "Because I'm a Special Person" (live at KPSU)

Pickwick sounded like other bands. Then they said, "Hey, we don't want to sound like other bands. We want to sound like Pickwick." So they did something about it.
LISTEN:

Pickwick - "Hacienda Motel"

Plus more than enough Up and Coming shows to roll your eyes at.