Music

--The Willows bring to the Middle East Upstairs a brand of Americana country rock inspired by the seasonal carnival scene up in Salem. Alas, no salt water taffy is included in the price of admission. With The Vic Morrows, The Resonance, The Giant Melons. Middle East Upstairs, 472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, doors 9:00, 18+, $8.

--While the show has been sold out for weeks, if there's any way you can get in we recommend you check out MGMT with Yeasayer and DJ Carbo. MGMT has a fun electro-pop sound that has garned a lot of buzz recently and is a blast to dance to. If the Craigslist posts offering to pay upwards of $50 for $10 face-value tickets is any indication of their popularity, we can expect to see them back in Boston as part of a larger tour. Great Scott, Allston, 9 PM, 18+, $10 (sold out)

Books

--If you're not in the mood to hear rock, you can always read about it. Dan Kennedy (not the same as Dan Kennedy of Media Nation) survived life in the music biz and lived to write about it in Rock On. Judging from the reviews, the industry world is more like Office Space than This Is Spinal Tap. Brookline Booksmith, 7:00 pm. Free.

--Makes sense that Charles Baxter is giving a reading around Valentine's Day since one of his novels spawned the flick Feast of Love. The reading is part of a Memorial Lecture series in honor of Chuck Pacheco, a Harvard Book Store employee who died of a brain tumor in 2006. Part of the proceeds from the lecture will go to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. First Parish Church Meetinghouse (via Harvard Book Store), $5.

Korri Crowley contributed to this post. Image of Willows from their mySpace site.

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Bostonist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla.