Another week, another Mercury music section that'll mess up your thyroid something fierce.

Super shredder Marnie Stern can out-tap Eddie Van Halen any day, and I'm not talking tap dancing. (Although she could probably out-tap-dance Eddie as well. Jazz and modern, though? Eddie all the way—you have not lived until you've seen the man Fosse his way through "Poundcake.")

LISTEN: Marnie Stern - "Year of the Glad"

NoMeansNo's Tom Holliston gave us perhaps the most honest quote a musician has ever given this paper: "There's no grand plan. We're in a band. We want to come up with songs... sometimes."

LISTEN: NoMeansNo - "'Til I Die"

Texas black metal band Absu spell "magick" with a K. (Strangely, they also spell "tragick," "garlick," and "parapligick" with a K. What can I say, they are just really fond of that letter.)

LISTEN: Absu - "Abraxas Connexus"

And plenty of Up & Coming shows to get you through the week.