The Guild Cinema, our burg’s art house movie theater, is a local treasure—remnant of an age when Joey Abbin's grandma took tickets on summer days and Ant Farmers members and future Fred’s Bread and Weekly Alibi staffers ran the projectors and doled out endless buckets of tasty popcorn. The place is still rocking fine film experiences nearly 40 years later, but the dudes at the controls need our help. Technology has advanced so quickly over the past decade as to make hardware and software for public film presentation prohibitively expensive. But the crew is on top of it, for The Guild Fundraiser to make all our cinematic dreams eligible for local screening. They host a benefit concert featuring the best of our experimental music scene at Launchpad on Thursday, June 20 starting at 9pm. That bill boasts two new bands, Searching for Summer and Sleepy Hero, that are made up of members of Death Convention Singers, Mammal Eggs, Chicharra, Lady Uranium and Bigawatt. This 21-and-over celebration of celluloid heroes can be had for just $8.

Russian Girlfriends hosts a Baphomet Beach Party to celebrate the release of their new record, The Day We Put The Dog Down, at 8pm on Friday, June 21 at Launchpad—that sounds fun and we can always appreciate the jollification of Satanic urges. But the real reason for the season is the support of a local band with a superior rock record that has emerged from the ether to conquer summertime listening habits here, there and potentially everywhere. With for-realz everyman angst buoyed by propulsive playing, catchy crunchiness and all the humility of a team of draft horses dredging a 150-ton trawler up from the depths, The Day may be one of the best records to come out of this little old military outpost in the desert that we call home. Russian Girlfriends has been burning through black plastic punk power for nigh on five years but this one could be the key to the next level. Find out for yourself and sell your soul to the dark one at the same time for $8 in advance and $10 at the door plus an ID that attests you have passed the threshold of 21; it will be blissful, bright and then painless, we're sure.