It's not too early to make plans for Halloween weekend, and if you want to make this year especially memorable, hop a plane to Las Vegas for the Vegoose Music Festival. It's an impressive lineup of tons of bands in one place: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Mars Volta, The Raconteurs, Cat Power and the Memphis Rhythm Band (we'll see about that), Gomez, Fiona Apple, Jenny Lewis, BRMC, and a bunch of those jammy/jazzy bands that people seem to like, including Widespread Panic, G. Love, MMW, and more.

Enter to win two tickets to the day shows at Sam Boyd Stadium (night shows, airfare, hotel and gambling money not included. Remember, this festival is in Las Vegas, Nevada, which means you'll need to get there somehow. Contest ends 10/12; winner will be notified via email).

Tonight catch a free show at 6pm by The Dears at Amoeba. They play Popscene later with Fields at 330 Ritch. We still haven't seen a show by magician extraordinaire Stallion, but we'll have another chance to see him when he presents "Fogstorm: Revisted" at 12 Galaxies on Friday. We're also dying to know what kind of crowd will be at Red Devil Lounge to hear the country stylings of the John Corbett Band. Do you think Bo will be there to cheer him on?

On Saturday, one of our favorite local bands. Cold War Kids, plays with The Album Leaf and Foreign Born at Mezzanine. The Futureheads were originally supposed to play the show but they had to cancel their tour due to injury. Magnolia Electric Co. is at Great American; get some mp3s at their website.

Last year we had a grand old time at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, spending all weekend running around Golden Gate Park and doing our best to catch a glimpse of Dolly Parton in her bedazzled glory. This year's lineup is as shiny as one of Dolly's rhinestones, with Emmylou Harris, Alejandro Escovedo, Earl Scruggs, Drive-By Truckers, Gillian Welch and so many more. It starts Saturday at 11am and lasts through Sunday night, and it's all for free. Glory, glory, Hardly Strictly!

More show picks and a video, after the jump.

On Monday The Knitters return to SF to play the Independent with Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter. The Pogues are at the Fillmore for the first of three nights.

On Tuesday, Sufjan Stevens and his band of merrymakers alight upon Berkeley's Zellerbach Auditorium for two nights of gorgeousness. If you think you can survive on just the one kidney, you might want to trade the other one for tickets to one of the very sold out shows. Lucky ticketholders should get there in time to hear opener My Brightest Diamond, who does an intense, soaring, Kate Bush/Denali thing behind the piano, which we totally dig. Listen to My Brightest Diamond over at Stereogum.

We thought the video and song for Cobra Starship's "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)" was funny, especially before the movie came out and underwhelmed everyone. We didn't think the band was for real, beyond performing on Jimmy Kimmel, but they're on tour and playing at Slim's on Wednesday night if you're interested. Or you could just watch the video: