Since the beginning of the new year, the folks from local music message board Rosesmp have been hosting Rock for Dollars every Sunday, where anyone with an instrument, a will to rock and a toonie can come down and play a set alongside Calgary’s most adventurous artists (with a chance to win prizes, to boot). Brothers Ben and Seth Leon started Rosesmp (rosesmp.com) as a source of information on the local scene, whether you’re looking for something cool to do on a Friday night, some street-level exposure for your own creative outlets or just the chance to meet other art-inclined individuals.

“We’re from Montreal,” Ben explains. “And there’s a really good message board there that kind of grew from the message board into putting on shows — doing similar stuff [to Rosesmp]. Once it got rolling, people from every genre of music and medium of art would congregate there and you could really get the word out.”

With the knowledge that message boards have worked in Calgary’s music community before (such as Calgary Punk, the widely used all-ages message board of the early ’00s), the Leons are using Rosesmp as a jumping-off point for bigger shows, theme parties and other elaborate schemes. This month, they’ll be hosting February Hop on Friday, February 26, featuring Lethbridge’s latest and greatest lo-fi rock outfit, Fist City (featuring ex-members of Endangered Ape and The New Danger Kids), the brothers’ own band, Jeremy Clarkson, and The Polyshores and Les Drague Mothers (featuring the guitarist from January’s 411 features, Grown-ups), as well as a showing of Jon Waters’s camp classic Hairspray and free mac ’n’ cheese!

Les Drague Mothers will hit the scene multiple times this month, but Grown-ups is showing no signs of slowing down its own maelstrom of activity, playing with post-hardcore upstarts Stalwart Sons at Republik on Thursday, February 18 (also with the ’Mothers) and releasing its second cassette on Bart Records with an all-ages show at Tubby Dog on Thursday, February 25. That show will also be the final performance for blistering street-punk four-piece Black Death Boners, and will feature a rare appearance from Friendo side-project Topless Mongos.

Rolling things back a little earlier in the month, indie rock band Dream Horse Spirit will haunt Dicken’s Pub on Friday, February 12, along with the lush tones of folk-pop band Francis Cheer, appearing for the first time as a five-piece. As if there weren’t enough new bands to keep track of this month, DHS offshoot Steam Engine will also debut, featuring members of Bikeland and The Grim Beat.

If you don’t happen to have plans with a special someone this Valentine’s Day, why not plan to drink a few and run into someone new when pop-punk veterans Chixdiggit play the Republik this Sunday? The Neckers and Meisha & the Spanks will be there, Sarah Ford will be spinning records, and Terry from Fubar will be the new ringleader for the circus of your heart. How romantic.

Once the hickies from Sunday have faded enough for you to leave the house, art-rock aficionados The Summerlad will be releasing an album of brand new material on Friday, February 19 at Broken City. Judging from the preview on the band’s MySpace page, listeners can expect even more Brit-rock-influenced shoegaze, soaring atmospherics and psychedelic pop hooks from the veteran experimenters. Friendo and dreamy fuzz-pop outfit Extra Happy Ghost are opening.

Further down the CD release train, aggressive metal band Hellrazer will unveil its second full-length album on February 27 at the Distillery, along with equally heavy-hitting friends United We Fall and Bravado. Apparently most of the Hellrazers are also brain researchers at the University of Calgary, which would explain the band’s album title, Prisoners of the Mind. I assume they’ve done extensive work on stimulating the parts of your brain that want to rock, so watch out — you might find yourself in a state of fist-pumping hypnosis.

Don’t forget to drop old Dane a line if you catch wind of happenings around town, or want your own band mentioned in an upcoming column. daneswanson411@gmail.co