It's a new week, which means it's time for a new installment of Bobble Tiki's South Sound music news and notes column. Without further ado, let's get rolling.

Do you ever get flashbacks? Bobble Tiki does. Sometimes, completely out of the blue, Bobble Tiki's mind will be transported from his living room easy chair to some wild, hazy party from his past. It's pretty trippy, to be completely honest - and Bobble Tiki's not entirely sure what does it. Maybe it's the hypnotic effects of watching Alex Trebek on Jeopardy.

Anyway, this is exactly the type of feeling Bobble Tiki got when he saw blues semi-legend Walter Trout was heading back to Tacoma this week, for a show Saturday at Jazzbones. This is not the first time such a show has gone down. In fact, Trout - along with a handful of other noteworthy national touring acts like Tab Benoit, Curtis Salgado and Coco Montoya - have made Jazzbones a regular stop anytime tours bring them to the Northwest. While these guys - Trout included - may be just icing the cake of their formidable music careers at this point, it's still always nice to have the chance to see them live, in person, and most importantly in Tacoma.

While Walter Trout doesn't have the most recognizable name in blues or rock, he should be up there, and the fact that the kids of today know nothing of the guitarist's career worth of musical accomplishments strikes Bobble Tiki as both unjust and inevitable. Rock and roll and blues were once the soundtracks of youthful rebellion. Today they're more like the founding fathers. Most kids today don't know a damn thing about William Whipple either.

Born in New Jersey in 1951, Trout cut his teeth in the same local music scene as Steel Mill, which featured a fresh face by the name of Bruce Springsteen. After moving to Los Angeles, Trout eventually hooked up with Canned Heat and then John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - where he and the aforementioned Montoya formed one of the most fearsome guitar tandems of all time. It was during this period that Trout made a name for himself.

See what he's all about Saturday at Jazzbones.

Moving on...

Spoiler Alert: Gay Beast is fucking awesome.

Sorry, but it's true. Bobble Tiki simply can't help but climb to the rooftop and shout it, especially in advance of the band's show Saturday at Northern in Olympia. This is destined to be one truly bizarre, truly memorable evening.

If you're not hip to Minneapolis' Gay Beast yet - described as "Minnesota's premier agit-prog queer band" by the their label, Skin Graft, on skingraftrecords.com - there's still plenty of time to get on board the guitar/synth/drums, math-y and sporadic bandwagon - even if the New Yorker has beaten you to it. Luckily, most mainstream ears haven't - nor would they tolerate it.

Which is just fine by me, since mainstream ears don't deserve what guitarist Isaac Rotto, keyboardist and vocalist Daniel Luedtke and drummer Angela Gerend bring to the table.

Gay Beast is - indeed - a best, and one worth hearing and seeing yourself.

Speaking of the New Yorker, here's what the fancy-pants magazine had to say about Gay Beast's sophomore record, Second Wave, which came out earlier this year:

"The group's latest record, 'Second Wave,' is full of erratic shifts in time signature, pleading yelps over razor-sharp eight-bit keyboards, and pounding tribal percussion. Although not for the faint of heart, this frenetic trio's music is miraculously danceable-the perfect soundtrack for a post apocalyptic discotheque."

Lastly, Bobble Tiki has always been a big fan of the Supersuckers, and he just so happens to have two pieces of Supersuckers related news to pass on this week.

Bobble Tiki's piece of Supersuckers-related news number one: Eddie Spaghetti will play Hell's Kitchen in Tacoma on Friday, July 16. Any show with Spaghetti is sure to be awesome, but this one only ups the ante by throwing James Hunnicut on the bill. Super awesome.

Bobble Tiki's piece of Supersuckers-related news number two: As you probably know, at least if you follow the band, Supersuckers have been dropping like flies lately. Not long ago longtime guitarist Rontrose Heathman - a co-owner of Tacoma's Satellite Coffee, and a T-town resident - left the band (technically for the second time). During this same stretch, the band said goodbye (totally amicably) to longtime manager, Chris Neal - who's one hell of a dude, and has always been nothing but sensational during Bobble Tiki's limited interactions with the band. Neal is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the music business, and turning it on its ear.

Well, while he's not managing Spaghetti and the boys anymore, Neal is keeping busy - and one of the coolest things he's got going is a new blog, Rockonomics: Tales from the Pit.

Bobble Tiki literally stumbled across it, but so far so good for Neal's humble little blog. Here's what he has to say about it:

"I started this site to talk about my tenure in the music industry, along with trying to entertain and educate.  I hope you'll read along as I post stories and have others post their anecdotes and tales from the inside of the music biz.  From RCA to John Tesh to the Supersuckers.  From private jets to Econoline vans.  From the crossroads where art and commerce meet."

Neal's kickass new blog is located at rockonomix.wordpress.com. It's worth checking out.

See you next week.