Soul to the left of us, soul to the right, soul on the weekend … Our little burg is doing its best Motown right now, so dress appropriately.

While local soul merchants Fitz & the Tantrums finish up their residency tonight at Spaceland, Boston-bred crooner Eli “Paperboy” Reed tees it up at the Roxy.

He's the kid who moved to Mississippi after graduating high school and ingratiated himself into the music scene there, then moved to Chicago where he played in the church ministered by '60s songstress Mitty Collier.

To hear his Capitol Records debut Come and Get It, you wouldn't be surprised if he told you he communed with the ghost of Wilson Pickett, either.

(At SXSW 2007, the Austin Chronicle said of Reed: “Taking home the award for best Otis Redding impersonation by a 23-year-old Jewish boy from Massachusetts …”) Reed's album, released in May, has an every-song's-a-single mentality, and the songwriter's winking way with wordplay keeps it as smart as it is fast-moving.

Can there be a better way to warm up for Saturday's Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings/the Heavy concert at the Wiltern? We think not.

Elsewhere: Carlene Carter, performing with estimable Dave Alvin, headlines a MusicCares Nashville Flood Relief show at the Echo benefiting musicians and venues who were hit hard by that city's spring floods. The lineup of heavy-hitters includes Exene Cervenka, Syd Straw, Tony Gilkyson and others … And, speaking of heavy, you can't get more hardcore than the swamp metal played by Black Tusk, who visit the Viper Room.

Also: The Psychedelic Furs and She Wants Revenge at the Wiltern; Gavin Rossdale at Saint Rocke in Hermosa Beach; Every Avenue and Sing It Loud at the Troubadour; Fat Freddy's Drop at the Music Box; Family of the Year at the Bootleg Theater; Kate Miller Heidke at the Hotel Cafe; the Studiofix and Radio Freq at the Silverlake Lounge; Woah Hunx at the Smell; Will Bernard at the Mint; the Pharmacy at the Redwood Bar; and Future Island's in-store at Amoeba (7 p.m.).

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