Tonight at 8 p.m. veteran alt-rockers Built to Spill will hit the State Theatre, one stop on their ambitious North American tour promoting the just-released There is No Enemy. BTS frontman Dough Martsch — who started the band in Boise back in 1992 — took a minute from his busy schedule to chat with us via phone from his tour bus. Among other things, we learned that even old-school rock stars like the “shuffle” function on their iPods:

Are you a jazz fan? The idea of Herbie Hancock get you giddy? Miles Davis give you heart palpitations? Yes? Well, get pumped for Thursday, ’cuz boy does the Haunt have an act for you.

But what about all the rest of ya’ll? Those who idolize Radiohead and Sigur Ros? I’ve got good news for you too. The Haunt has a show Thursday night that you’re bound to love. Yes, ladies and gents, you got it: Jazz and rock will come together in one big Cuong Vu hullabaloo.

It is not often that a heavy dose of R&B and rap rolls around as a Sunday evening pick-me-up. A keen bunch of weekend concertgoers seized upon this rare opportunity, flocking to a stuffy Barton Hall to dance to three fiery MCs: Mario, Trey Songz and Fabolous. In spite of the Sunday night blues, the show provided enough invigoration to start the new week (or end the weekend) with a bang.

Not your average double Grammy winners, They Might Be Giants have a lot in common with the average Cornell student: They seem cool at first, but are really just plain geeky. Kicking off a 40-city tour last Thursday night at the State Theatre, the band played a solid two-hour set to a nearly packed crowd.

Call them anything, and if you want, all at once: geek rock, quirk rock, plain old alternative rock. Double Grammy winners They Might Be Giants are ready to shake the scene tonight. The band is well known for its catchy tunes and unconventional track record including songs for The Daily Show and adult swim show The Drinky Crow Show, not to mention San Francisco-based publishing company McSweeney’s (for which they did a joint multi-track literary-musical work) and Malcolm in the Middle. They Might Be Giants will grace the State Theater downtown at 8 p.m. tonight, as part of a tour spanning multiple months and covering the distance from New York City to Los Angeles … twice.

Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips (known musically as Dean & Britta) brought Andy Warhol’s Factory to Cornell Cinema on Friday night. The duo provided the musical accompaniment for 13 Most Beautiful… Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests. Together with the Andy Warhol Museum, Dean & Britta put together a set of songs to accompany 13 four-minute, black and white silent screen tests shot by Warhol in the mid-1960s. Playing both original compositions and cover songs, the band’s distinctive pop aesthetic seemed to be influenced by 1970’s punk rock (think a pleasant Joy Division/David Bowie combination).

Mike Brindisi isn’t wasting any time. An emerging presence in Ithaca’s local music scene, he and his band, The New York Rock, played an intimate crowd Thursday night at Castaways, putting on a good face and promoting their growing name.

In 2009, People Magazine selected and photographed around two dozen celebrities as the “World’s Most Beautiful People.” Maxim Magazine chose 100 hot women and published revealing pictures of a selected few. In the same realm, FHM cherry-picked the “100 Sexiest Women in the World.”

But no one did it quite like Andy Warhol, the most famous and revolutionary American pop artist of the late 20th century.

You know you’re in for an interesting show when the first song is titled “My Whole Family Thinks I’m Gay.” And Bo Burnham didn’t disappoint by leaving out anything raunchy, satirically racial or taboo.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the YouTube sensation, Bo (short for Robert) Burnham, would be the love child of Shakespeare and ”Werid Al” Yankovic; his lyrics are filled with raunchy, yet hysterical, puns that leave the audience questioning their own morals. At the young age of 19, Bo has already established himself as an Internet cultural sensation, even garnering the attention of Judd Apatow and penning a musical for him. Bo is currently on tour promoting his self-titled album, produced by Comedy Central.

Wednesday night, Daniel Francis Doyle along with local musicians Why the Wires, Elsa and the awesomeAWESOMES and the semi-local onemanriot will play The Shop. The show will be stop eight on Doyle’s 17-show tour, and I was lucky enough to speak with him about his music and the upcoming Ithaca show as he drove from Chicago to Pittsburgh.

The Sun: How did you get into playing music and the solo project you’re doing now?