Face facts, rock ’n’ roll: The double-neck bass/guitar almost always comes across as being pretty goofy. Nine times out of 10, the combination instrument is a ridiculous novelty, a jack-off set piece that clown-ass bands employ to look cool.

If you’ve happened by the Plaza in the past few weeks, you may have noticed our town square alive with locals and tourists enjoying a multitude of musical acts on the bandstand.

By now, you’ve heard that local nightclub/music venue Corazón has closed its doors due to tax problems. However, this may not be the end for the club.

For more than a decade, New Mexico funk act Felonious Groove Foundation has won fans and awards all across the state. Throughout, co-founder and bassist Todd Eric Lovato has been at the center of the hot, funky action. Now, Lovato is calling it quits to focus his energy on a new project, Todd & the Fox.

Ben Wright and Paul Feathericci, the boys from everybody’s favorite local electronic/rock/experimental trio D Numbers, are back in town. They recently returned from ViceVerse, a five-week, ten-country tour through Europe. I checked in to see how it all went.

For those who don’t know, E3 is this huge conference that focuses on video games and the stuff people need to play them. I bet you’re thinking that it sounds stupid, and you have no clue why you’re reading this in a music column. Actually, video games have a rich musical history, as evidenced by these musically memorable moments in video game history.

The 12th annual Thirsty Ear Festival is sure to go down in “dude, you should have been there!” history. That’s in part due to some pretty big changes—they’re all good, I swear.

Up until a few weeks ago, if you had asked me, “Hey, Alex, what do you think about the future of punk rock in Santa Fe?” I would have said something like, “Yeeesh!” And then I would have put my head in my hands and wept. Never had the phrase “punk is dead” sounded more true in Santa Fe. But then I received an email from a woman named Sophie Rousmaniere. She told me that her new Santa Fe punk band The Elected Officials was throwing a show with Albuquerque punk acts Dead on Point Five and Domestic Violence. My brain flared with memories of bands such as The Fraid Knots, People that Look Famous and The Floors. I visited TEO’s website and discovered the band to be officially awesome.

Thanks to some reader comments, I recently discovered that I am, apparently, an unsupportive monster. It seems that questioning the quality of local bands is unacceptable. To let a week go by without mentioning as many musicians and music organizations as possible is unforgivable. This sort of aversion to criticism is dangerous to the quality of the music scene in Santa Fe, and I’m not the only one to notice.

The Santa Fe Children’s Museum isn’t a place people think of when it comes to live music…or adults for that matter. After all, the space is, first and foremost, for children. Associate Educator Rachael Kissling’s hope, however, is that some after-hours music and adults-only fun might stir up buzz for the museum and help pull more people into the world of play-to-learn education.