Wednesday 3/28

The Ting Tings, MNDR

(Showbox at the Market) See Sound Check.

Yuksek, Johnny Fever, Flat Black

(Neumos) See Data Breaker.

Sun Araw Band, Matthewdavid, M. Geddes Gengras, Diva

(Rendezvous) Sun Araw gazes thoughtfully on the latest cover of the Wire, and a piece on him appeared in last week's Stranger, so you're rightly stoked to see him and his band, but don't miss Matthewdavid. The LA producer's 2011 album on Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label, Outmind, casts an eerie glow over avant-garde hiphop's framework and filigrees it with febrile textural and atmospheric details. Matthewdavid's funk disorients with hyper-surreal sound design that's at once visceral and cerebral. M. Geddes Gengras is a synthesizer sorcerer whose music makes you feel like your brain is part of a science-fiction experiment. DAVE SEGAL

The Coathangers, White Mystery, Sick Secrets

(Comet) Armed with a full-throated, meaty guitar tone and a voice that sometimes rivals it in power, White Mystery's Miss Alex White and younger brother "Francis Scott Key White" churn out fuzz-rock jams that favor whomping drums, soaring chord progressions, riffs that lacerate, and dual vocals. Their latest, the aptly titled Blood and Venom, has earned favorable reviews, probably because it's so much goddamn fun. Sample lyrics: "Roses are red violets are blue/The night is young and so are you/May all your wishes come true/Boogie down in your birthday suit." GRANT BRISSEY

Eligh & Amp Live, Onry Ozzborn

(Crocodile) Los Angeles MC/Living Legends crewmember Eligh and Amp Live, the producer half of Oakland's Zion I, released a fairly well-received album called Therapy at 3 in November 2011. Yes, it falls into that conscious "backpack" rap territory in a way that some might find outdated in 2012, but Amp Live's heavily electronic production makes it a more modernized take on the genre. Eligh's comfortably monotone flow still has mad substance to reward close listens, but he tends to disappear into the background at times. Still, dude's been rapping since the early '90s and knows how to rock a live show. Oldominion/Grayskul/Darktime Sunshine OG Onry Ozzborn opens. MIKE RAMOS

Noise-A-Tron, Hot Victory, Blasted Canyons, ((Terminal Fuzz Terror))

(Highline) To be honest (for a change, right?), the name Noise-A-Tron doesn't portend great things. It sounds too gimmicky and slapdash of a handle for a band that I'd hope to take seriously. But Seattle duo Noise-A-Tron (Lea Blesoe on eight-string bass and keyboards, and Jason Bledsoe on drums) summon a convincing doom-drone/metal hybrid that thankfully eludes the hackneyed signifiers of both styles. Their girthful tracks move with a geological majesty. Bay Area trio Blasted Canyons claim to make "drag race music for mutants," which they do with brash, trash-culture-loving conviction. ((Terminal Fuzz Terror)), ((Ayahuasca Travellers)) guitarist Darwin Rodriguez's new project, further pushes his gouging, throbbing psych-rock sound to sanity-threatening extremes (think Spacemen 3's "Suicide"). DAVE SEGAL

Thursday 3/29

THEESatisfaction, OC Notes, Chocolate Chuck

(Neumos) See Stranger Suggests.

Dark Star Orchestra

(Showbox at the Market) For longer than most of you have been alive, the Grateful Dead have inspired both slavish devotion and knee-jerk mockery (usually by people who've heard 0.03 percent of their music)—which is a serious accomplishment in itself. Named after the Dead's most expansive, psychedelic jam, Chicago's Dark Star Orchestra have, since 1997, dedicated their lives to keeping the band's legacy truckin' for future generations. With meticulous attention to detail and technical fluency, DSO replicate a different Grateful Dead concert, song by song, in its entirety on any given date. If you share these superfans' GD zealotry, you can't find a better reverent revival experience than a DSO concert. DAVE SEGAL

Friday 3/30

Los Vigilantes, Dead Ghosts, the Lovesores, Blasted Canyons

(Funhouse) See Stranger Suggests.

Weed, Babysitter, Half Gift, Mega Bog

(Funny Button) See Underage.

Dark Star Orchestra

(Showbox at the Market) See Thursday.

X-Bit 1 Chiptune Showcase: Jonny Nero Action Hero, others

(Pink Gorilla) See Data Breaker.

Caspa, Designer Drugs, Speed Reid, others

(King Cat) See Data Breaker.

Black Tusk, East of the Wall, Samothrace, Crawlin'

(Highline) Savannah, Georgia's Black Tusk surely observe the "amps are your tanks and artillery" approach laid down by Pentagram, only without so much gloom and doom. Wall-of-riff guitar is paramount in the band's self-described "swamp metal." Black Tusk's latest, Set the Dial, is a testament to such, and it lands as a technically brilliant album for a band that was already technically brilliant. GRANT BRISSEY

The Purrs, Exohxo, Daniel G. Harmann & the Trouble Starts, Speedwobbles

(Comet) The Purrs are currently wrapping up their new album, The Boy with the Astronaut Eyes, but in the meantime you should welcome spring by jamming to their 2010 release, Tearing Down Paisley Garden. The fuzzy, swirling, psychedelic pop record will make it feel like the sun's shining a little brighter and the cherry blossoms are blooming a little bigger. Songs like "Only Dreaming" and "It Could Be So Wonderful" sound like if the Posies grew up on a Southern California hippie commune in the 1960s. The slower "I'm Slipping" is a bit boring—I always skip it—but things pick up again with the Southern-rock-inspired "Always Something in My Way." MEGAN SELING

Hounds of the Wild Hunt, Baltic Cousins, Dude York

(Sunset) Hounds of the Wild Hunt have appeared dormant since last July, but they've actually been plenty busy. Guitarist Nikki O says they've been putting together a new record with Johnny Sangster, which was recorded all over—Columbia City Theater, the Wizard House in North Seattle, Sangster's Crackle & Pop—mixed at Avast!, and mastered by Doug Krebs (who's also now joined HOTWH on drums). They're getting ready to release the album, El Mago, and this is the first time they've hit the stage in this new incarnation. Judging by the one song that's available on the internet, "Courage," El Mago should be a far howl from their days as the Whore Moans. The new material sounds more like the Hold Steady or Titus Andronicus, all with a good, solid base of Replacements appreciation. GRANT BRISSEY

Consignment, Can the Boy Tell Time, Brandon Daniel & the Chics

(Skylark) Dear Consignment: Where have you been? I know you still live in Seattle. Ggnzla Records released that beautiful, bummer-pop record So Low last November, and there were a couple of shows... Then you showed up doing a live set on Audioasis on KEXP back in January—but I haven't seen hide nor hair since! So Low is so great! Why are you hiding? You should play those songs out in clubs so lots of people can come and listen, and then give you high fives and stuff! Thanks! Your fan, KELLY O

Saturday 3/31

Magma Fest: Jan Terri, Don't Talk to the Cops!, Slowdance, Wimps, Neighbors, Jamey Braden Performance Art, Nod & the Hobgoblins, Sip's Odyssey

(Black Lodge) This final show of Hollow Earth Radio's Magma Fest should be an appropriate "bang" to end on. Singer-songwriter-rocker Jan Terri—yes, the Jan Terri from those goofy VHS music videos—will be performing her first-ever show in Seattle for the night's main event. While this should get her low-key cult following out of the woodwork, the seven other bands on the bill, including electro-rap party-starters Slowdance and hiphop dance-punkers/recent Greedhead signees Don't Talk to the Cops!, should get everyone else appropriately and equally hyped. MIKE RAMOS

Seattle Opera Young Artists: Donizetti's Don Pasquale

(Meany Hall) Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti may be the hardest-working man in the history of opera. He wrote 66 operas, and the 64th, made in 1843, was his comedy Don Pasquale, a sparkling gem of the bel canto tradition. It's the story of an old man who tries to control a younger woman by marrying her. Bad idea, man. JEN GRAVES

Helms Alee, Sandrider, Thrones

(Comet) It's always a keen tactical move for anyone who loves heavy metal to close in on a Helms Alee or Sandrider show. These guys (and girls—love you, Helms!) are high-ranking generals and lieutenants in the local metal army. They're constantly out there in the Seattle battlefields and in enemy territory, fighting the good fight. The added incentive of this show is the reappearance of Thrones. This one-man band, made up of First Sergeant Joe Preston—whose other battles have included fighting alongside Earth, Melvins, Sunn O))), Karp, and High on Fire—creates a weird brand of avant-doom that's been rumored to cause the "brown sound." You've been warned about that one, soldier. KELLY O

Carolina Chocolate Drops

(Showbox at the Market) Hailing from Durham, North Carolina, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are the contemporary "old-time string band" whose 2010 album, Genuine Negro Jig, won the Grammy for best traditional folk album. They're also one of the greatest live bands on earth. From the start, the band has made infectious magic with banjo, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, kazoo, and jug (plus wonderful vocals). Last year brought the addition of a full-time beat boxer—Adam Matta—who makes the CCD's connection between old-time call-and-response and new-fangled hiphop rewardingly explicit. This show will be nuts. DAVID SCHMADER

Sunday 4/1

Emancipator, Shigeto, Marley Carroll, the New Law

(Neumos) See Data Breaker.

Hiromi: The Trio Project

(Jazz Alley) Hiromi Uehara, a young Japanese jazz pianist, not only has one of the greatest jazz pianists in the history of the tradition, Ahmad Jamal, as her mentor, but as the producer of her 2003 debut album, Another Mind. On top of that, the company that manages Jamal manages Hiromi (she goes by only her first name). Her art? Judging from her most recent album, Voice, and her debut (she has released five albums so far), Hiromi explores four lines of music: progressive rock, jazz fusion, jazz proper, and classical. I'm indifferent to the first two lines, but the last two lines mean just about everything to me, and from them I can make this sound call: Hiromi is really talented, has a big and rich sound, and has learned a lot from Jamal. CHARLES MUDEDE

Monday 4/2

Hot Snakes, the Bangs, Spider Fever

(Neumos) See Granted.

Boot Camp Clik

(Crocodile) Split the Philly and lace up your Timbs, Brooklyn's Boot Camp Clik are in town. All eight original members—Buckshot, Smif-N-Wessun (Tek and Steele), Heltah Skeltah (Rock and Ruck/Sean Price) and the O.G.C. (Louieville Sluggah, Top Dog, and Starang Wondah)—will be in the building tonight for this stop of their unofficial reunion tour. The Bucktown crew are reportedly in the early stages of recording their fifth group album, and though it's tough to equal their more crucial '90s-era output, their catalog of group, solo, and side-project material spanning 19 years has more than enough concrete, hardcore rap goodness to make up for that. MIKE RAMOS

Tuesday 4/3

Rodrigo y Gabriela and C.U.B.A

(Paramount) Mexican acoustic guitarists Rodrigo y Gabriela combine spellbinding virtuosity with unconventional arranging and interpretative skills to recontextualize metal standards like Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" (it's miraculously fresh again!) and Metallica's "Orion," as well as to create their own riveting Latin-jazz compositions. Their playing can turn on a dime from frighteningly powerful to absurdly punctilious, and their percussive slaps on the body of their instruments is similarly spectacular. After witnessing R&G blaze through their dazzling repertoire, you'll not be able to tolerate a minute of basic coffeehouse-strummer shtick ever again. Tonight they perform with the Cuban orchestra C.U.B.A. DAVE SEGAL See also Underage.