This week we have sad news, happy times, good benefits, and, apparently, lovely weather to top off an odd and peculiar few weeks of early autumn.

Our hearts go out to the family of guitarist Alex Borisov, who passed away unexpectedly last week. A kind soul and a soulful musician through the years, Alex has played with several bands, including Picture This, Paula and the Pontiacs, Cicero Slim & the World War III Blues Band and most recently, Harmony Deep. Alex was a fixture at the Tuesday night open mic hosted by Sam & Kortney at the Curve Inn, where he performed often, many times while accompanying his daughter Rachel. This past Tuesday, Oct. 17, the open mic night at the Curve Inn hosted a celebration of life in music for Alex, who had requested that friends play to pay their respects whenever he might pass from this stage on earth.

On Sunday afternoon folks will gather at Crows Mill Pub from 1 to 5 to celebrate and honor a great cause with a benefit fundraiser for the Land of Lincoln Honor Flights. These flights offer veterans a chance to visit war memorials in Washington, D.C., free of charge, and this benefit helps raise funds to offset the cost of those trips. The Groove Daddies and John Brillhart offer up some live music (there go those charitable musicians again), and $15 gets you in to listen to all the music you can and to imbibe all the draft beer you care to drink from several varieties offered. So go do good and have fun.

Bar None hosts a couple of cool, creative shows this weekend, bringing some indie rock and Springfield original music to the corner stage on Fifth and Monroe. Kate Laine presents her “dream pop” songs during a CD release party for her Recurring Dream album on Friday. Laine brings along Kristin Walker plus the musical duo of Arlin Peebles & Erin Darnell to fill the bill with a burst of indie singer-songwriter passions and purpose. On Saturday Springfield pop-punk rockers Hospital Job come back to town after more than a year of staying away. Joining in the fun night of expressive music are Chicago indie rockers Two Houses and Springfield’s own pop rockers Attic Salt, proving that three rockers can’t be wrong.

Let’s head back to Thursday as Southtown’s Dumb Records presents a musical extravaganza of epic proportions inside the happy little record store starting at 7 p.m. A solo project from Memphis called Holy Gallows combines “guitars, keyboards and a host of effect and looping pedals to create a massive ambient musical soundscape” that might just blow your mind. Also set to perform (in no particular order) is Pretend I’m Not There, listed as “local ambient phone guitar”; Jeff Williams, of NIL8 fame, who intends to jam out solo; Glower, who adds a drummer to a “local all star duo,” perhaps making it a trio now; and Side Wrist Flick, performing justified new jams from that Mark Reynolds guy. All this for five bucks, which will all likely go to the traveling ambient sound feller from Memphis so he can go on to the next town and do it all over again. Plus, you can buy a root beer, browse through vinyl records and say hi to B.J.

Next week is the highly anticipated, annual “Best of Springfield” issue, and this year, for the first time ever, Illinois Times is hosting a party to accompany this most excitable of issues. Join us at the BoS Plaza on Thursday, Oct. 26 (hey, that’s my birthday!) from 5 to 9 p.m., with live music from the Brat Pack and Fun DMC. Check the Facebook event page for more details.