DJ SHADOW

Let me drop a history lesson on you. Back in 1996, DJ Shadow released Endtroducing....., a big bang of an album that hurled sample-based instrumental music on a brave new path, well before the demographic and author of this column had any idea of what it meant to be a crate-digger. The album still holds up today as a remarkable collection of brooding, anxious beats made out of obscure sounds that (largely) weren't meant to be beats at all. Shadow has spent the ensuing decade and a half exploring the various worlds left in Endtroducing's wake (from guitar rock to hyphy), but his latest, The Less You Know, the Better, is a more well-rounded affair. Live, Shadow often retreats into a chameleon-skinned orb and lets a stunning visual show take center stage. With Nerve. Showbox at the Market, 8 pm, $25 adv/$30 DOS.

LIL B THE BASEDGOD

Is there a single musician who better represents our Millennial Generation than Lil B? There's his fraught yet dependent relationship with the internet—he's known for his prolific use of MySpace, Twitter and YouTube, but also has a song saying the age of information has ruined the human race. There's the free-flowing ideas of music ownership—the label-less Lil B certainly isn't the first rapper to utilize free online mixtapes, but they constitute the majority of his oeuvre, and he's frequently posted MediaFire links to his physical releases. There's his schizophrenic examinations of celebrity culture via tracks titled "I'm Miley Cyrus," "Mel Gibson," and "Ellen DeGeneres." And finally, there's the anti-ideology of being a "Based God," which isn't readily defined, but promotes authenticity, positivity, and love for all beings (whether they're gay, straight, or just like eating ass). Catch Lil B—fresh off the heels of his first college lecture—as he continues his rise as a generational spokesman. Neumos, 7 pm, $20.