THURSDAY 2/10


COME DOWN HEAVEN, HEIST AT HAND, THINK AIRBAG
(Fun House) Portland duo Think Airbag create squeaky-clean, wonder-struck space rock reminiscent of bands like Helio Sequence and Sianspheric (anybody remember them?). Their music's certainly pleasant and tuneful, but it's not likely to launch you very far from familiar earthly surroundings. At times, their album even sounds like cuddlecore dressed in silver space suits. Still, Think Airbag's hearts are in the right place (space, in the Jason Pierce rather than Sun Ra sense of the word), and it's always encouraging to see young musicians trying to get expansive. DAVE SEGAL

IRON COMPOSER: JENNY JIMENEZ (THE CATCH) VS. ERIK BLOOD (THE TURN-ONS)
(Crocodile) The Iron Composer series has been responsible for liquoring up local musicians and putting them head to head in a merciless songwriting competition for a while now. It's always been in good fun, but now the match gets personal as the Catch's Jenny Jimenez (officially the sexiest girl in a Seattle rock band, by the way), faces off with her producer, Erik Blood of the Turn-Ons (not officially the sexiest anything, but hot nonetheless). But there's more! The judging panel is loaded with dramatic conflicts of interest, including Jenny and Erik's bandmates, Catch vocalist Carly Nicklaus and Turn-On frontman Travis DeVries among others (who may or may not work at The Stranger). MEGAN SELING

MOTION RECORDINGS TOUR W/THE MOLE, TYCONICHI, ANCIENT MITH, TANG LI WHEEBS, JOHN TSUNAM
(Sunset) Oakland-based Motion Records is fostering a hiphop clique (the Mole, American Mith, Tang Li Wheebs, Tyconichi) whose next-school vibe may take a while for heads to grasp. Oddly undulating flows that owe more to Frank Zappa and Primus' Les Claypool than Jay-Z or Method Man, eccentric music samples heretofore the domain of Daedelus, and densely detailed production values place Motion in a fascinating space between Def Jux and anticon's rosters. Seattle's rising speed-spitting MC John Tsunam should fit in well with these misfits who are hiphop's answer to the Firesign Theatre. DAVE SEGAL

CLUB CLUB: PARIS
(Chop Suey) This month, Club Club shifts its pop sights to a new romantic destination: France. Or, more specifically, la ville d'amour, Paris. Since Seattle seems filled with musical Francophiles, expect an evening resplendent with admirers of Serge Gainsbourg, Edith Piaf, and Yves Montand. Hosted by two ladies with top Parisian-style class--Kathleen Wilson and Sylvia O'Stayformore, with DJs Mamma Casserole, Deutscher Meister, and Les Saucettes. JENNIFER MAERZ

CITIZEN COPE, MARC BROUSSARD, DAVID RYAN HARRIS
(Showbox) I guess I could see one Citizen Cope show--he does have that NPR crowd by the nuts. Two is stretching it. But three nights at the Showbox? Isn't G. Love already coming to town? JENNIFER MAERZ

FRIDAY 2/11


LUNA, MIDNIGHT MOVIES
(Neumo's) See preview, page 57.

greenskeepers, dj venus, james medina
(Catwalk) See Stranger Suggests, page 45.

PLAYING ENEMY, FREE VERSE, AMBITIOUS CAREER WOMAN, GIRTH
(Rendezvous) See Stranger Suggests, page 45, and Live Wire, page 60.

BLUE SCHOLARS, SILENT LAMBS PROJECT, BISHOP 1
(Chop Suey) The eighth track on Silent Lambs Project's Street Talkin'… Survival, "Strange Exchange," is produced by King Otto, a man who deserves more attention in a town that often takes too long to recognize and promote its best artists. An organic philosopher and always dressed to the nines, King Otto is one of Silent Lambs Project's main beat providers, and "Strange Exchange" is the best beat he has provided the rapping duo. The track loops what sounds like the twang of Japanese biwa against a melancholy arrangements of royal horns; now and then, the beat skips but it never trips up the rappers. At certain moments you hear something magical rise in the distance, but before you can determine what is (an enchanted palace, a sun rising over a field of flowers), the loop suddenly reboots, and we are back at the beginning of creation. CHARLES MUDEDE See also My Philosophy, page 63.

EISLEY, THE ELECTED, THE COLOUR
(Crocodile) Last summer I took a long drive with a friend to Whidbey Island and got stoned in a barn. Then we drove through some of the emptiest fields I've ever seen and played the Elected's debut album, Me First, on repeat. The CD sounds like country music from an electronic planet--traditional guitars, piano, drums, etc., but roughened up, muffled, split, hesitant, obscured by blips and beeps and feedback and people talking into answering machines. The best and riskiest song on the album, "C'mon, Mom," has been looping in my head for the last seven months. It's a sweeping, supernatural ballad fueled by anger and exhaustion. At the height of the song's undeniable beauty, the singer sweetly sings: "You're a fucking liar and I'm leaving." CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE

A FRAMES, THE HUNCHES, SWIMMERS
(Funhouse) Portland miscreants the Hunches' fidelity and regard for sensible volume levels are equally low. Their atomic bomb of a debut album, Yes. No. Shut It. (2002, In the Red), makes the Stooges sound like a hotel-lounge band--and I adore the Stooges. 2004's Hobo Sunrise (which I haven't heard) is supposed to be even bigger and better. The Hunches' feral garage rock reduces to dust the absurd cartilage attached to the sides of your head. Seattle's A Frames are poised to release their screw-tightening Sub Pop debut, which hones their tautly slack, organically robotic post-punk into stark ear tattoos you'll wear proudly for the rest of your life. (Kids, don't try mixing metaphors like that at home.) DAVE SEGAL See also Live Wire, page 60.

INTERPOL, BLONDE REDHEAD
(Paramount) For a band that started out with a heavy artistic debt to Sonic Youth and the No Wave movement, New York trio Blonde Redhead have taken some intriguingly strange turns. With their latest album Misery Is a Butterfly, they've created a suite of songs that are gorgeous, diaphanous, and strangely haunted. The album is even more hypnotic than their last effort Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons, and the singer Kazu Makino's voice only gets more mesmerizing with each listen. NATE LIPPENS

PANTHERS, BIG BUSINESS, A KISS FAREWELL, RAKING BOMBS
(Vera Project) Big Business' recent CD release show was one of the more memorable such events this city has seen. They may have been playing upstairs at Neumo's, but the band arrived by limo, had white-robed "angels" playing trumpets to herald their start, and a wigged conductor with a music stand, um, conducted the metal duo through the lumbering tracks that give their debut CD, Head for the Shallow, weight like a 10-ton burrito in the gut. Vice recording artists Panthers plunge into that dark, urgent abyss traveled by the Catheters on their excellent 2002 Sub Pop debut, Static Delusions and Stone Still Days, equal parts Stooges and wall-of-sound style. JENNIFER MAERZ

SATURDAY 2/12


GOLGOTHAN SUNRISE, SUGAR SKULLS, PIPSQUEAK, GUESTS
(Rendezvous) See Stranger Suggests, page 45.

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS, CRYSTAL SKULLS, BLACK MOUNTAIN
(Crocodile) Crystal Skulls compose fruity, slightly proggy pop for the bespectacled masses. Their melodies swoop when you expect them to soar and swerve when you expect them to plunge. XTC, Steely Dan, and Ben Folds Five fans will slurp up the sweetly corkscrewed pop confections Crystal Skulls serve on their upcoming release Blocked Numbers. DAVE SEGAL See also preview, page 55.

ARGO, PLEASURECRAFT, TENNIS PRO, NO FI SOUL REBELLION
(Sunset) No Fi Soul Rebellion should be seen by everyone at least once. This husband and wife pair from Bellingham perform raucously soulful songs, but the trick is in the presentation. Mark Heimer sings his heart out, very loudly, in your face, and demands that you dance, while wife Andrea quietly stands in back and lightly plays air-guitar. That's right, she's not actually playing that guitar, because there's a minidisk player inside the instrument that is actually playing all the songs. She's just there for moral support! It's bordering on genius, I swear. After you see No Fi, stick around for Argo, who will delicately finish the night with intricately woven xylophonic melodies in their tight indie-rock tunes. ARI SPOOL

MASSIVE MONKEES B-BOY JAM
(Vera Project) For those not in the know, Seattle has world-class breakdancing talent in our midst. And by world class I mean "headed overseas and took the international b-boy crew prize in 2004" kinda talent. Check them out now while they're still performing in spaces as small as this one. JENNIFER MAERZ

SUNDAY 2/13


TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS, THE JOGGERS, U.S.E., SEA NAVY
(Neumo's) See All Ages Action, page 55.

SMOKE AND SMOKE, CLOROX GIRLS, THE WESTERN DARK, BRUTAL KNIGHTS
(Sunset) The Sunset's Four O'clock Punk Rock series has been up and running again for a little while now, offering one more rock respite from the workweek before Monday rolls around. Tonight's showcase features Smoke and Smoke (Spencer Moody from the Murder City Devils desperately and brilliantly coming apart once again, this time under the heavy pummeling of ex-godheadSilo's distinctly clamorous rhythms) and S.F.'s the Western Dark. The latter is more of a straight up, American punk rock 'n' roll-type band that preaches the well-worn gospel of sex, drugs, and r 'n' r (Zen Guerrilla's Carl Home plays drums). JENNIFER MAERZ

MONDAY 2/14


ROBBIE FULKS, GUESTS
(Sunset) See Border Radio, page 65.

THE CATCH, ANNA OXYGEN, HORSES
(Neumo's) Since Valentine's Day is all about hearts, what better way to treat your heart right than to witness aerobic instructor/new wave goddess Anna Oxygen? The night also features a performance from the latest project to result from the Carissa's Wierd dissolution, Horses. Their somber, haunting indie rock nods to early Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, and, well, Carissa's Wierd, and with their beautifully solemn compositions echoing through the room, couples are going to cuddle up close while the lonely singles will cry their forlorn eyes out. MEGAN SELING

TUESDAY 2/15


BEEP BEEP, THE CRIPPLES, COCONUT COOLOUTS, DJ FUCKING IN THE STREETS
(Neumo's) Like many of you, I'm impatiently waiting for the Cripples to follow up their high-joltage debut full-length, Dirty Head (Dirtnap). We've memorized the local quartet's 13-song disc of sweetly caustic, synth-powered garage punk and are eager to hear more of their wired songwriting skills. In the meantime, we'll have to content ourselves with a Cripples live show, which, in Neumo's intimate upstairs space, should be like standing at ground zero of a Korg factory explosion. Beep Beep's 2004 album on Saddle Creek, Business Casual, splits the difference between the Cars and Gang of Four, with singing as camp as Ian Svenonius'. Lot of that going around lately… DAVE SEGAL

WEDNESDAY 2/16


SECRET MACHINES, MOVING UNITS, AUTOLUX
(Neumo's) See Stranger Suggests, page 45.