Thursday 8/7

Zs, Wildildlife, Weird Lords, Capillary Action

(Comet) A night of stirringly unusual rock music, this bill includes the more cerebral Zs and Capillary Action. Recently pared down to a trio, NYC's Zs are a compositional juggernaut, bending their rhythmically rigorous, note-stuffed pieces into thrilling and emotional shapes. They embody the most effective elements of both New Complexity and punk rock, and will truly knock your dick in the dirt. Capillary Action, another bastion of avant rock futurism, recently relocated to Seattle and are already on a tireless campaign of local ascendancy. SAM MICKENS

Guilty Pleasures Cover Night: Massy Ferguson, Sean Bates, Thee Threats, C'est la Mort, Life in a Blender, the X-Ray Eyes, Mike Danner, Dischordia, Three Legged Dog, the Moonspinners, Holly Grigsby, the Harborrats, Black Swedes, Sean Nelson

(Tractor) In the world of guilty pleasures, there are two kinds of people. There are those who keep their guilty-pleasure songs secret, holding them close to their heart and never sharing with anyone what embarrassing sonic gems make them truly happy. Then there are those who are out and proud—shamelessly flaunting the fact that, fuck yeah, they love "Irreplaceable" ("to the left/to the left") and they don't care who knows it (I'm more the latter, usually). Tonight's show, a benefit for 826 Seattle, is an ode to all those treasures that music snobbery has deemed guilty pleasures. Local artists including Sean Nelson, Massy Ferguson, and C'est Le Morte will pay tribute to their favorite embarrassments by covering them live, in public, for the world to hear. The evening is sure to be full of surprises. And someone better play some goddamn Avril Lavigne. MEGAN SELING

Friday 8/8

Harshfest: Syphilis Sauna, Sporadik, and more

(Hanta Haus) See Bug in the Bassbin

Balls Out

(Re-bar) See Bug in the Bassbin

Dolly Parton

(WaMu Theater) See Stranger Suggests

Devin the Dude, Neema, J Mar, D.Black, Cool Nutz, the Parker Brothaz

(Neumo's) See My Philosophy

Loaded, People Eating People, Flight to Mars

(El Corazón) Nouela Johnston first flaunted her siren's pipes in the electrifying blues-punk trio Mon Frere. After the band broke up, Johnston continued to play around town, filling in where needed (including a stint on keyboards with charming pop outfit Say Hi), all the while quietly working on solo material. She finally debuted her new songs a month or two ago under the name People Eating People. It's quite a change from what she was doing with Mon Frere—she's at the piano again, but now the songs are stripped down, allowing her stellar voice to take the lead in smoky, vintage lounge ballads and infectious piano parlor pop. MEGAN SELING

Drag the River, Tumbledown, Mike D & the Loyal Bastards, Simon & Go Fuck Yourself

(Jules Maes) Every punk needs to learn a little history. Music didn't start in 1977. That rebellious breed of outsider musical art can be traced back to the early 20th century. And it seems that more and more disenfranchised folks are taking note. They're looking back to America's roots. They're embracing that Woody Guthrie creed: All you need is two chords, and the rest is just showing off. Drag the River, like any respectable ragged Americana act, understand that lineage. Yes, the world is a fucked up place, but rather than lashing out through distortion and Marshall full-stacks, unplug that guitar and lay those sentiments bare. Every bitter young ruffian should take note: There's no better vehicle for your ire than a folk song. BRIAN COOK

Macklemore, Braille, Theory Hazit, Da'rel Junior, Ohmega Watts

(Nectar) Work your body. Work it. Work it. Work it. That there is a hiphop truth. The body must do work, must go out on the street, move the product, promote the soul, push the sound. The other week I saw Terry Hill (aka 80's Baby/Gameboy) working the people at the Capitol Hill Block Party, putting CDs right in their faces, and talking up the content—pure work. The local rapper Macklemore is another hard worker. Is there a weekend he is not on a stage somewhere in the Pacific Northwest rhyming, kicking his beats, expressing his position in life and politics? And his is not empty work; it's work with substance and a definite art direction. In our dematerialized age (e-mail, text messages, blogs), we must never forget the importance of labor, the importance of the physical hiphop body. CHARLES MUDEDE

Showbread, Kane Hodder, Danny the Champion of the World, Sirens in the Sky

(Viaduct) Kane Hodder are not gone, but these days it feels like they've been forgotten—the band once had a whole mess of fans dubbed the Hodder Army, national press, songs featured on MTV... the kind of stuff little locals only dream of. But after a year of canceled tours and lineup and label shake-ups, they've lost a lot of that steam. And that's a bummer because Hodder remain one of the most innovative (and greatest live) acts in the Northwest. But it's not over yet—this month they return with a new self-released digital EP titled Through the Bloody Channels, We Raise Our Sails. Six blistering new songs reiterate the fact that Kane Hodder are the masters of the pop/hardcore hybrid, fusing bright guitar solos and hard bass lines together with anthemic clap, stomp, and sing-along breakdowns. With Through the Bloody Channels, Kane Hodder are finally back and reigniting the dance party (at six million degrees). MEGAN SELING

Saturday 8/9

The Dutchess and the Duke

(Wildrose) See Review

Son Ambulance, Weinland, A Weather, the Hunting Club

(Vera Project) See Stranger Suggests

Harshfest

(Marsbar) See Bug in the Bassbin

Amateur Radio Operator, Swaybacks, Ollie Byrd, the Music of Grayface

(High Dive) The last time ex-Seattleite Ollie Byrd came through town with his band the Trees, his normally sonorous yelp had been reduced to a dull, raspy whisper from too many days on the road. Which is a damn shame, because Byrd's voice is a profound instrument that leaps among the branches of the vocal continuum, from mumble to shriek and chant to wail. Always threatening to cross the line between musicality and chaos, he delivers his misty tales of yearning, pharmacological oppression, and Chaka Khan with the tender-yet-ferocious command of Axl fronting Fugazi. However, all of this mass epicry is greatly dulled when the frontman is reduced to a barely audible croak. Let's hope that this time through, our Byrd can sing. DAN PAULUS

Nomo

(Nectar) Ann Arbor, Michigan, is about as unlikely a place to find an Afrobeat act as any, but it's nevertheless home to Nomo, a nine-person ensemble that formed at the University of Michigan and now record for, among others, Ubiquity Records. The instrumental group combine familiar polyrhythms and instruments with more modern electronic touches—electrified thumb pianos and funk horns share sonic space with meandering synth oscillations. Where their previous album New Tones usually stayed on the more studious, mellower side of things, their new album, Ghost Rock, more frequently breaks out really raucous grooves. Live, they look to be one overwhelming hell of a party. ERIC GRANDY

Sunday 8/10

Portland Cello Project

(Triple Door) The Portland Cello Project is dedicated to providing independent musicians—those who wouldn't ordinarily be able to hire a string section—a chance to work with a pool of classically trained cellists. This has resulted in some unexpected collaborations, many of which are showcased on the album. Portland Cello Project features Portland musicians performing their own songs with cello accompaniment, plus a few all-cello arrangements thrown in for good measure. Some bands simply give their songs to PCP's Doug Jenkins to score, others work with the ensemble to develop songs together. The results range dramatically in tone and genre. The PCP plays the Triple Door with guest artists Friday Mile, Weinland, and Loch Lomond, whose Ritchie Young notes that performing with the PCP is "very powerful. Fifteen cellists playing in a hardwood-floored room can make your business tingle." ALISON HALLETT

Garth Reeves, Jeff Fielder, Satchel Jones, Darren Loucas, Blue Spark, Kim Virant, the Friel Bros

(Sunset) You may not be able to catch a time machine back to the mid-'90s, but at tonight's hootenanny—led by Goodness/Blue Spark's Garth Reeves—you're bound to relive some of the camaraderie that made that era of the Seattle music scene so much fun. Reeves, in town for the Goodness reunion, is hosting a musical get-together that includes good friends and former bandmates Kim Virant, Chris and Rick Friel, Darren Loucas, Jeff Fielder, Satchel Jones, and more. BARBARA MITCHELL

Monday 8/11

Music Video?, Glorydog, Nancy Frieko

(High Dive) There are several things wrong with the band name Music Video?. The first, obviously, is the extraneous question mark. Readers might not know this, but copy editors are a violently uptight bunch, and all the cute little commas, exclamation points, and question marks in your band names (I'm looking at you !!!, Adult., the Go! Team, etc.) make their lives downright miserable. Secondly, Googling "music video" along with various combination of "Seattle," "band," "MySpace," or what have you elicits nothing so much as WTO protest footage on YouTube, the Wikipedia page for "Grunge," and the MySpace pages of Pearl Jam and Throw Me the Statue. Finally, and this isn't the band's fault, the High Dive calendar page only links to tonight's openers, neither of whom inspire particularly high hopes for the mysterious Music Video?. (See how dumb that band name looks in a proper sentence?) ERIC GRANDY

Tuesday 8/12

Stephen Ashbrook with Ian Moore, Mike Musberger, and Keith Lowe

(Triple Door) He may hail from Portland these days, but singer/songwriter Stephen Ashbrook has never shaken the sun-drenched, acoustic pop-rock of his native Tempe. On his latest album, White Balloons, he takes the laid-back vibe of the Gin Blossoms' best work and mixes in the rain-gray charm of Pete Droge, who produced the record. Tonight, he's backed by a rockin' band consisting of some of the Northwest's finest—whiz-guitarist (and ace singer/songwriter in his own right) Ian Moore and drummer extraordinaire Mike Musburger. The evening is a benefit for Special Olympics Washington, so you'll leave feeling good on both a musical and philanthropical front. BARBARA MITCHELL

Wednesday 8/13

Nothing happens today.