A Brooklyn Beat: The Books, Evan Dando, Monster Project, Prefuse 73

If you're in a band that plays slow, intellectual mood music, heavy on the cello, with song titles like "An Animated Description of Mr. Maps," why would you want to go and call yourself The Books? Isn't that something like wearing a pocket protector that also shows your name spelled out in a Dynamo label your mother made? Lucky for The Books, their output is like the, um, Dungeon Master of nerd music, unbelievably pretty and pretty weird to boot, and probably worth checking out at Northsix on Friday. At Southpaw that same night is Evan Dando, who used to be in a band with a nerdy name, the Lemonheads, but really was just another pretty boy waiting to go solo. On Saturday, keeping with the theme, any geek worth his or her ten-sided die shouln't miss Saturday's Monster Project at Galapagos, which features live renditions of music from monster movies like "Godzilla," TV shows like "Land of the Lost," and a special medley devoted to slasher flicks. Slide whistles and theremins are promsied, and maybe they can borrow the cellist from The Books to do Jason Voorhees' theme. Finally on Sunday at Southpaw is Prefuse 73--fun, glitchy, hip-hop influenced electronic stuff. "Prefuse" isn't even a real word, smartypants.