As I slowly recover from the stellar Rob Zombie gig, my eyes and ears point toward more great tunes in town tonight. What's your pleasure? Arty noise-rock? Metal? Pop? SLC's got it Tuesday eve.---

Before hitting the bar scene, though, consider a jaunt to The King's English to support some local literary talent. Authors Shawn Schmidt, Amy Maddocks, Nancy Miles and Robert Goble will all be reading from their new works at 7 p.m.

After that stop, it's a matter of choosing among some worthy options.

The James McMurtry show at The State Room is sold out, so unless you have a hankering to deal with a scalper to see the cantankerous Americana artist, skip that stop. Still plenty of choices.

There's the mighty political metal of Valient Thorr at Burt's Tiki Lounge. I've been loving their new album, Stranger. Over at In The Venue, Sonic Youth (pictured) headlines a gig after playing at the Matador Records 21st birthday party in Vegas over the weekend. Thanks to the presence of bassist Mark Ibold in the band, this is probably the closest SLC's going to get to a Pavement show. Besides, Sonic Youth still rules, as our profile of the band makes clear.

And even though The Complex hosted a show last week, the new venue is calling tonight it's "Grand Opening," and it features shows by both James and Anberlin in different parts of the venue. I'll be going down to check it out, so watch for a report tomorrow.

Don't remember James? You probably remember the song "Laid:"