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.

This past summer, Beck began a new music project — Record Club. He spends a day in the studio with his ever-so-cool musician friends and they cover entire albums (they’ve finished The Velvet Underground & Nico and have moved on to Songs of Leonard Cohen) releasing one track every Thursday; unrehearsed, unplanned and sometimes unwell. While some of the covers are quite good — “Sunday Morning” and “Winter Lady” — the product itself is nothing too remarkable. However, the actual success of the individual covers is irrelevant. What makes this musical experiment valuable is the prevailing notion. When it comes down to it, it is a nice idea.

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.

Ithaca College’s Emerson Suites overflowed with flannel shirts, tight-fitting jeans and a healthy helping of enthusiasm on Friday night, as students from across the city converged to see John Darnielle take the stage.

As lead singer of the Mountain Goats, Darnielle has developed a cult-like following since the band formed in 1991. No doubt his Ithaca fans were out in full force to support him during his solo performance.

After taking the stage, Darnielle seemed nervous and shaky as all of the attention focused in on him. Hoots and hollers from the crowd were quieted as he began his performance.

In May, the guy at Radio Shack told me that those little iPod-hooker-uper things don’t work and that I shouldn’t even bother getting one. As a result, I was stuck listening to the radio all summer long — in other words, I lived and breathed the top hits of summer 2009. Now, MTV’s Video Music Awards have come, inspired the status of virtually everyone on Facebook, and gone, and many of these songs are still appearing regularly on the radio. Personally, I can’t think of a better time to assess a few of the key hits.

It’ll be hipster heaven on Friday as The Mountain Goats — lo-fi strummers extradonaire and progenitors of Bright Eyes and the like — descend on Emerson Suites at Ithaca College for an intimate night of singing, swooning and sharing.

Started by John Darnielle in the early ’90s — and still, as far as anyone’s concerned, his band — The Mountain Goats occupy a special niche in the indie rock stratosphere, mixing the high-brow lyricism of outfits from The Velvet Underground to The Decemberists with the beautifully earnest, slightly deranged harmonies of Neutral Milk Hotel or Daniel Johnston.

I’ve noticed a theme in my writings for the Sun thus far this year. And it goes a little something like this (which, by the way, is a line from an Aaron Carter song): ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Holy f-ing shit! I have to join the real world so soon! Ahhhhhhh! Etc., etc., many exclamation points … you get the drill. I have decided the best way to deal with this is just not to think about it, as you might have gathered from how much I have done about applying to jobs and grad school, or studying for the GREs. Hint: it rhymes with hero. And it’s like the opposite of a hero. And I’m pretty sure that’s a line from Disney’s version of Hercules. Many inadvertent and ridiculous song references today. Odd.

“I’m not bi, I’m tri … I’ll try anything.” With this bold pronouncement, guest artist Ke$ha announces her flirtatious nature on a track from Pitbull’s fourth studio effort, Rebelution. The album is in the same vein as the rapper’s previous efforts — while Pitbull stays true to his Latin hip-hop roots, he also experiments with different modes of dance, which results in an album that is always surprising and entertaining.

Hailing from North Carolina, the Bowerbirds further develop their folk-inspired sound on their sophomore album, Upper Air. Phil Moore and Beth Tacular’s stirring lyrical duets and complicated harmonies are enhanced by the band’s effortless acoustics and the help of Matt Damron on percussion. A blend of accordion, guitar and bass drum, the trio produces authentic and original songs that embody the spirit of the beautiful landscape in which they live.

Hailing from North Carolina, the Bowerbirds further develop their folk-inspired sound on their sophomore album, Upper Air. Phil Moore and Beth Tacular’s stirring lyrical duets and complicated harmonies are enhanced by the band’s effortless acoustics and the help of Matt Damron on percussion. A blend of accordion, guitar and bass drum, the trio produces authentic and original songs that embody the spirit of the beautiful landscape in which they live.