This week's concert preview is being brought to you by Kevin Meenan of Epicsauce, providing detailed concert listings for the Bay Area every week. Follow them on Twitter.

Not going to lie to you -- it is a slow week in live music, with several venues shutting their doors for the holidays and the bulk of touring bands opting to take the week off. There are still a handful of options, however, with San Francisco noisemakers Death Sentence: Panda! alongside Oakland's No Babies at Apgar House Tuesday, a star-studded fundraiser for the San Francisco Food Bank featuring Jonathan Richman, Chuck Prophet, Mark Eitzel and more at The Makeout Room (also Tuesday), Detroit's constantly rotating hip hop outfit Slum Village at Yoshi's Wednesday and Salinas's promising garage rock quartet The Mystery Lights at Hemlock Saturday.

As we eagerly look forward to next week's stacked New Years Eve, we can't help but feel a bit nostalgic for what has been an extremely memorable year in Bay Area music. We had a series of nationally buzzed music festivals, excellent releases by locals Mi Ami, Ty Segall, Battlehooch, Thee Oh Sees, Lazer Sword, The Dodos, Wallpaper, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, Sleepy Sun, Girls, and more and an absolutely endless bounty of show options to choose from on any given night.

Any local releases or shows that stood out for you in 2009? Let us know in the comments.

Monday, December 21st
The Taxpayers, Destroy Nate Allen @ Retox Lounge $5