Handicapping the Last MoCA Battle of the Bands

As the summer draws to a close, so too does the Museum of Contemporary Art's exhibition "Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967." But there are still a few events to come, most notably this Thursday's final installment of the Battle of the Bands series. The winner will receive a Gibson guitar and a recording studio session. A grand-prize winner for the whole summer scores a day at the fabled Hit Factory studios (f.k.a. Criteria) in North Miami. (The lucky band will be selected by a committee of folks from Hit Factory, Sweat Records, and MoCA, and announced on the museum's website). June's victors were the Down Home Southernaires; the Hongs took the prize in July. Here's a rundown of August's competitors.

The Pots N Pans: Their brand of rock is fast and furious, a little like the clanging of, um, the items for which the band is named. Considering their MySpace page credits frontman Bobby Boloby with "vocals, guitar, convulsions," their live set should be entertainingly spastic.

Sinister Smith: Skinny, shaggy, and psychedelic, these three guys are the purveyors of tripped-out songs with titles such as "Magical Magenta Mystery." Kind of like the soundtrack to an acid test, but a little heavier and more to the point than the noodling excess of latter-day hippies.

Airship Rocketship: Synth-based and vaguely New Wave-inflected, this natty quintet spins shiny, soft pillows on which to lay your head and space out. Something of a South Florida secret, these guys are polished and organized enough to break out.

Electric Bunnies: This snappy trio is deliciously lo-fi and a little bouncy, with distorted, jangly chords that are equal parts Byrds and Ramones. Recommended for ex-punk-rock types who dig those Nuggets box sets.

TV Club: These four guys from West Palm "like to get drunk and rarely practice," but this non-method is definitely working. A refreshing break from South Florida's popular dancey, effects-heavy sounds, their songs are refreshingly sloppy and stoney, harking back to a time when indie was rightly followed by the word rock.