PHAROAH SANDERS
(Jazz Alley) Jazz critic Stanley Crouch says many silly things, but he is correct to point out that jazz ended in 1969. Fusion is not jazz; it doesn't even have the honor of being the death of jazz. The true and honorable death of jazz is found in the art noise of avant-garde jazz. This is its point of departure, and one of the masters of this final era of jazz is the saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. He famously played with John Coltrane during his late spaced-out period, and continued successfully to explore the experimental frontiers after Coltrane's departure. Like Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, and Anthony Braxton, Pharoah Sanders is one of the final jazzmen who wrote and performed the last jazz songs. Sanders plays at Jazz Alley through Sunday. CHARLES MUDEDE

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS, BICYCLE THIEF
(Moore Theatre) See Stranger Suggests.

WEST SECTION LINE
(Sunset Tavern) See preview this issue.

CROOKED FINGERS, JIM WHITE, THE PLACES
(Crocodile) See preview this issue.

eXBeSTFRIeNDS, PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES, VISQUEEN
(Graceland) Since The Stranger ran a feature I wrote about eXBeSTFRIeNDS frontman Ryan Davidson a while back, I have been accused exactly four times of having a crush on him. Listen people, I'm a monogamist. And the very idea that I have a crush on Ryan Davidson is laughable, when my entire heart is routinely bruised and chopped into gooey little bits by beautiful and effervescent Visqueen frontwoman Rachel Flotard. Formerly the leader of Hafacat, Flotard currently owns the stage with Fastback Kim Warnick. Visqueen is a four-piece, with a manic lead guitar player and a powerful drummer. Flotard's own quick-change guitar shenanigans and her scratched, sugary vocals make the music of Visqueen dynamic and genuinely beautiful. Warnick adds energetic bass and perfect vocal harmonies, and the end result is as enjoyable to watch as Green Day--a very high compliment for a live show, in my book. Be sure you get to Graceland early tonight, because this is a band you won't want to miss. Oh, and stick around to catch eXBeSTFRIeNDS, because the frontman is a fucking rock star. JEFF DeROCHE

BELLE & SEBASTIAN, JONATHAN RICHMAN
(Paramount Theatre) At the age of 50, former Modern Lover Jonathan Richman really should be the one headlining this show. I want him to make a million dollars off his West Coast dates with B & S, but he won't. I'm not altogether broken up over that fact though, because Richman is actually doing quite well for himself, what with the film work, the multiple appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and a fiercely loyal cult following that sucks up Richman's wide-eyed, literate, childlike music. See Belle & Sebastian preview this issue. JEFF DeROCHE

FAUX BANG!
(Sit & Spin) Apparently this week's Faux Bang! is going to be a wedding celebration for Jackie Hell. In what will likely be a hilarious display of psychodramatic pageantry, Hell is going to be hitched to "husband #8." There will also be performances by a band I've never heard called New Luck Toy, as well as the Androids and the Control-Tops. According to sources close to her, Hell has actually written a song--reason enough to skip Belle & Sebastian tonight and head down to the Sit & Spin. JEFF DeROCHE

ANALOG BROTHERS
(EMP) This is the latest offering from Kool Keith and Ice-T, and while I have to give them utmost respect for defining and redefining the wide world of hiphop, their collaboration, Pimp to Eat, is bad. But fear not! A group that is currently in full bloom with hiphop creativity is playing afterward at EMP's Liquid Lounge: the Silent Lambs Project. See Stranger Suggests. BRIAN GOEDDE

MIKE WATT, JOM & TERRY SHOW, THE RUBY DOE, ALTA MAY
(Crocodile) As the bassist for seminal SoCal hardcore group the Minutemen, Mike Watt played bass scales that were jazz-accented. In the 4/4 and four-square world of hardcore, that made him and guitarist/vocalist D. Boon more than any typical hard-and-fast trio. The band played with evangelical fervor, with their earliest songs clocking in at under a minute, hence the name. Of the dozen records the Minutemen made in their five-year life span, Double Nickels on the Dime is a masterpiece, mixing highly personalized leftism with raw power. After Boon's 1985 death in a van accident, Watt soldiered on with fIREHOSE and then released his album Ball-Hog or Tugboat? featuring a rotating cast of vocalists. With 1997's Contemplating the Engine Room, Watt created a record that is part abstract self-portrait and part concept album. It gives a glimpse into the blue-collar ethos that has driven him since the early '80s. NATE LIPPENS

DEAR JOHN LETTERS (CD RELEASE), RUSTY WILLOUGHBY, JOHNNY SANGSTER, ROBB BENSON
(Elysian) This here is the official CD-release party for Rewriting the Wrongs, the pretty debut LP from Robb Benson's most recent project, Dear John Letters. The songs are gentle, well-crafted, and shot through with astute rumination. This time Benson boasts a cast of talent to include Radio Nationals guitarist Richard Davidson (on bass), Johnny Sangster (producer for Benson's Nevada Bachelors), and a poet named Michelle Price, who provides lyrics. JEFF DeROCHE

URBAN MUSIC BASH, SILENT LAMBS PROJECT
(EMP) See Stranger Suggests.

OLD FIRE HOUSE NINTH ANNIVERSARY w/ THE MURDER CITY DEVILS, THE NOVEMBER GROUP, THE HIT, THE LOVE PUNCH
(Old Fire House) While a ninth anniversary may not be as exciting as a 10th-anniversary party, this may be one of the last times to see the Murder City Devils (rumor has it they may break up, or change their name or something). Either way, tonight's show celebrates the Fire House's nine years of success, with a lineup of musicians who all, in some way or another, have been involved with Redmond's finest all-ages venue. Fire House head honcho Kate Becker has made the Redmond all-ages scene a model for others to follow--like Seattle's own Vera Project. In addition to weekend all-ages shows, the Old Fire House offers weekly community dinners, photography classes, drop-in basketball, skateboarding classes, and a computer lab and youth art gallery. And they've been doing it for nine years! If only Seattle could be so lucky. PAT KEARNEY

LINCOLN CENTER JAZZ ORCHESTRA w/ WYNTON MARSALIS
(Benaroya Hall) Most of us with a mind for modern music still have our feathers ruffled by Marsalis' comments that hiphop isn't music at all--much less anything to be associated with jazz. Even though the two genres are committed to the art of improvisation, even though they work with the same general song structure (a chorus pivoting alternating solos), and even though Stetsasonic made a strong counterargument in '88 with "Talkin' All That Jazz," arguing that "this jazz contains a new format," Marsalis has turned his back. None of these arguments worked because Marsalis doesn't think in terms of formats; he is not a theorist, but an aesthete. This is why his supremely skillful musicianship and his conservative opinions are perfect for the establishment, and why he will probably sell out Benaroya Hall tonight. BRIAN GOEDDE

BLÖÖDHAG, 400 BLOWS, TEEN CTHULHU, SHOW PONY
(Graceland) Apologies to Blöödhag for running the wrong photo in our spectacular 2001 David Lee Roth Bumbershoot Guide, even though Jeff the guitar player and Jake the singer do look exactly alike.--Eds.

SMOKEY ROBINSON
(Puyallup Fair) Singer, producer, songwriter William "Smokey" Robinson is more than just a pretty face with a pretty voice--he actually has musical talent. He was the only Motown artist in the '60s who composed and arranged his own perfect pop pieces, as well as producing other famous Motown pop tunes for singers like Marvin Gaye. Bob Dylan was so impressed with Robinson's songwriting gifts that he once called Robinson the greatest living poet in America. Now, could you imagine Leonard Cohen saying that about R. Kelly? CHARLES MUDEDE

BLACK EYED PEAS, RES, MYSTIC
(Showbox) L.A.'s Black Eyed Peas have the right attitudes, looks, and politics, but the band is not great. There is no explanation for this. I have tried to like Black Eyed Peas, but whenever I play the group's CDs, it's like listening to a glass of water: I feel nothing. That is all I can say about Black Eyed Peas, so allow me to use the remainder of this space to recall an all but forgotten hiphop band, Three Times Dope. Back in the late '80s, Three Times Dope had an excellent hit song called "Funky Dividends." It involves a hard-working rapper and his ungrateful girlfriend. He tells her that she's spending way too much of his hard-earned money, and that their love should go deeper than his bank account. But she absolutely rejects his honest reasoning, more or less saying, "No romance without finance." Three Times Dope had three other hit songs, but none as impressive as "Funky Dividends." CHARLES MUDEDE

DJ SPINOFF
(Watertown) At hiphop DJ competitions, DJs select and scratch insults from rap songs and point at each other. I've never been to an electronica spinoff, but I imagine the DJs here will have to find more creative ways in the languages of trance, jungle, house, and other forms of electronica to crush the competition. The contestants will be Sentrik, DJ7, Adam Smash, Eric & Sam, Mike Clay, and Nexus (with a visual accompaniment by Pink 6), and they'll compete for prizes, including gift certificates from F-8 record store and a set at the next United State of Consciousness show. BRIAN GOEDDE

DICK GAUGHAN
(Tractor Tavern) Though the hysterical Scotsophiles among us (guilty!) are all a-drool over the impending arrival of Belle & Sebastian, we could all do far worse than to spend an evening with the legendary folksinger/flat-picker extraordinaire Dick Gaughan, a fellow Scot who's been singing plain, perfect songs of protest, poetry, and love since long before any of his wee twee indie rock superstar countrymen and women were even born. Gaughan shows are intimate and hilarious (like any good troubadour, Mr. G. is a brilliant raconteur), but more importantly, they are true concerts, in which the line between artist and audience evaporates in a puff of limpid melody. SEAN NELSON

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE, KINSKI
(Crocodile) See Stranger Suggests.

KENNY ROGERS
(Puyallup Fair) Here's one good reason to "Gallop to Puyallup": Kenny Rogers Roasters! JEFF DeROCHE

GRANT COGSWELL PRIMARY PARTY w/ NO. 13 BABY
(Re-bar) See Stranger Suggests.

THE GEORG GRÄWE QUARTET
(Nippon Kan Theatre) This is your week to prepare for the Earshot Jazz Festival, which is only a month away. There's Pharoah Sanders for your '60s roots, Irakere for some Cuban son (both at Jazz Alley), and Gräwe to limber up your ears. Half of this quartet hails from Germany (pianist Gräwe and reedsman Frank Gratkowski), and the other half is from the rich Chicago jazz scene (Kent Kessler on bass and the mighty percussionist Hamid Drake). Together, as documented on their CD Melodie und Rhythmus, they carve out a space somewhere between the eccentric velocity of the Cecil Taylor Unit and the improvi-sational fluidity of the ICP Orchestra. Drake's hard-hitting swing, Kessler's understated bass walks, and Gratkowski's bright, sometimes sharp jumpiness on various reeds are all bonded together by the lightning-quick phrases punched out by Gräwe's right and left hands. These guys are fast as hell, and will whip you into shape in no time. KREG HASEGAWA

ACTIONSLACKS, BURNING AIRLINES, RIVAL SCHOOLS
(Graceland) There are good bands and great bands, and then there are bands that, given the right circumstances, can actually save your life. At various points during the many times I've seen them play live, San Francisco's Actionslacks have been all three, a fact for which I will be eternally grateful. The band's third, most recent LP, The Scene's Out of Sight, finds the grindy, Bay-centric pop punk sound mellowing somewhat. Many years into their life as a band, Tim Scanlin and company have relinquished none of their prior power, but the new record's deft, mature sound (and, I'd guess, its title as well) goes some distance toward addressing the quandary faced by rockers who are no longer kids. PLUS, they're on a bill with Burning Airlines; any band named after an Eno song (to say nothing of the Jawbox connection... hello!) automatically becomes my new favorite band, but these guys follow through by actually making excellent records. They really do give you so much more. SEAN NELSON

ROBIN HOLCOMB, DANNY BARNES
(Tractor Tavern) Danny Barnes, formerly the mastermind behind the Bad Livers, unabashedly flouts influences as terrifyingly diverse as Butthole Surfers, Flatt & Scruggs, and the Jesus Lizard. Hell, the music he makes is so damn strange that critics tie their tongues into knots inventing embarrassing monikers like punk-grass or thrill-billy. He's a lunatic visionary and we're lucky he bailed out on overpriced and played-out Austin and moved closer to the Tractor. Hell, I'm perhaps the last country music fan in the city who hasn't experienced Barnes in the flesh, but after stumbling across Duet for Clarinet and Goat, the lo-fi oddity produced in his bedroom with ex-Hazel singer/songwriter Pete Krebs, I've been haunted by his odd music. So, just between us folks--I'm psyched about this show. Who knows what kinds of atrocities he's going to beg his banjo to commit? The mind fairly reels. TAMARA PARIS