THURSDAY 4/12

CHEB I SABBAH, DJ DAREK MAZZONE
(Chop Suey) An Algerian DJ by way of Paris and San Francisco, Cheb I Sabbah mixes music from around the world without ruining it with "world music." Sabbah has a palette of Hindu classical work, Arabic pop, European jazz, and transnational spoken word, updating it all with a futurism of unexpected electronics and British-city breakbeats. There's a constant search for nontraditional meaning here, a slam of assumed opposites, where heritage and progress clash like a kid's Tonka trucks. This is serious and important stuff, and you might learn something tonight, but you will also dance your ass off. GUY FAWKES

FRIDAY 4/13

STEPHEN MARLEY FEATURING JR. GONG, K'NAAN
(Showbox) With one louder-than-a-bomb single in 2005, Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley exploded with a light so bright he finally outshone the shadow of his father. "Welcome to Jamrock" brought the Marley legacy into the 20th century, Damian's street-level depiction of the "real hardcore" of today's Kingston ghetto resounding over brother Stephen's bone-crushing production (sampling Ini Kamoze's "World a Reggae" bassline). Stephen released an album of his own just last month, his first full-time solo work after winning a grip of Grammys as his brothers' producer. Mind Control is a heady blend of Jamaican musical styles, nodding toward dancehall, hiphop, and soul but dedicated to true roots rock. It's not as iconic as any of Bob's records, but how could it be? With that kind of lineage, just standing on its own is enough. JONATHAN ZWICKEL

SILVERSUN PICKUPS, SEA WOLF
(Neumo's) Each time I listen to the well-wrought songs of Silversun Pickups I get more and more enamored of this band that takes grunge and shoegaze, crumples them up, and comes out with a sound that's very much their own. Think sinuous, fuzzy guitars; propulsive, sometimes stammering drums; and songs with a tendency to spiral in on themselves in an intensely satisfying way. The best moments feature the interplay between Brian Aubert and Nikki Monninger as their voices writhe around each other, reaching higher and higher through the murk of distorted guitars. All of this interplay is best experienced live, where the band's intricate layers of harmony and discord can be disentwined and almost comprehended with the aid of your favorite licit or illicit substance. CHRIS McCANN

AEREOGRAMME, THE TWILIGHT SAD, A NORTHERN CHORUS
(Crocodile) While Aereogramme are the errant sheep of Scotland's Chemikal Underground label (Bis, Mogwai, Arab Strap), still unable to find their own voice after four LPs of soft piano wandering and fractured post-folk orchestras, the Twilight Sad are experiencing their own royal hype treatment. Shoegazing never conquered the world? No matter how many times it's tried? Some are convinced the Twilight Sad are the ones to get it right. With sonics based around Kitchens of Distinction/Slowdive—styled volume escalation and slow rolls of melodies-in-distortion, you can hear a response to the manufactured cool of contemporary indie. But the fight feels rigged—aren't we trading one nostalgic trip for another? GUY FAWKES

SATURDAY 4/14

THE TRASHIES, WHISKEY TANGO, BLACK FAIRIES, CLAY WHEELS
(Comet) See preview.

LONG WINTERS, THE BROKEN WEST
(Showbox) John Roderick's mostly acoustic pop gems range from merely pleasant to truly sublime, and that's not a bad range to be working in. Of those sublime moments, few are as high reaching as the orbiting ballad "The Commander Thinks Aloud." Roderick's voice is sure but not showy over spare instrumentation, and his lyrics, while not mind blowing, are simply sweet. The chorus in "Cinnamon" might not be a great revelation but it sounds fine floated on top of Roderick's jangly, upbeat guitar (and mandolin?) strumming. The Long Winters' latest album, 2006's Putting the Days to Bed, features more of the same plain poetic insights and thoughtful pop melodies and slightly less of the studio experimentation that marked 2005's Ultimatum EP. Live, Roderick is a casually charming and effortless performer. ERIC GRANDY

SUNDAY 4/15

MODEST MOUSE, LOVE AS LAUGHTER, Grand Archives(Paramount) See preview and Stranger Suggests.

CEU
(Triple Door) It may be counterproductive to inform you that CéU was chosen by Starbucks to be featured in their Frappucino-friendly CD series. Being Seattle, however, perhaps you've got a soft spot for our caffeinated overlords, and perhaps you don't automatically deem their soundtrack music insipid coffee-shop filler. That's good, because Brazilian-born Maria do Céu Whitaker Poças, aka CéU, is a genuine talent. Yes, her eponymous debut on world beaters Six Degrees is light, but that's because it's samba, as wispy and sparkling as sea foam. Over her effortless breeze of a voice, CéU and her quintet sprinkle plucked guitar and hand percussion, zipped up with subtle electro flourish, alternating between a soulful strut and a lazy saunter. It'll go well with an Americano in a cafe, but it's probably better with a caipirinha on the beach. JONATHAN ZWICKEL

JULIAN ESTRADA, UNKNOWN ARTIST, BULLFIGHTER, STONEFIELD, ANARCHY IN A THREE PIECE SUIT, THE SUPERNALS, OCO5
(El Corazón) On another local bill from the infamously shady Big Time Entertainment, tonight's standout, Bullfighter, has been making some buzz along the city's dive-bar circuit. As it's told, a few years back lead singer "Deeps" was diagnosed with leukemia after complaining of a pain in his arm following a show. Since then, the band have soldiered on through the various stages of treatment, developing a hard-rock chug that might not have seemed out of place in Seattles of yesteryear, or if Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, and Jim Morrison were caught boozing inside a reactor core and somehow survived a bizarre brain/band-melding accident. SAM EWALD

SPECS WIZARD W/ORIGINAL SPACE NEIGHBORS, DJ KUTZ, DJ LEOPOLD BLOOM
(Nectar) The inveterate, inspired Specs One has been a thoroughly individual and restlessly productive force in Seattle for decades as an MC, producer, and visual artist. Though he has been on his personal grind for a while, from a contemporary perspective Specs could be compared to beloved underground producer/rappers like MF Doom and Madlib. Like those artists, Specs uses the most soulful, sample-based aspects of hiphop production but places them in highly conceptual, character-driven contexts, most recently the one-man science-fiction duo Original Space Neighbors. Splitting his knotted brain and self into separate personas for OSN's rapping ("Mic Mulligan") and production ("S. Future"), Specs fashions tracks that are subtle in their passing, with music as dusty as the treasures of the Ethiopiques vaults and a pure-bred flow overlayed with blunted lyricism. SAM MICKENS

MONDAY 4/16

MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN, BEDOUIN SOUNDCLASH, THE OOLAHS, WE ARE THE FURY
(Chop Suey) So now mall-punk emo is flirting with dance music and beats and it's not a good look for anyone. Fall Out Boy are probably the most high-profile example of this trend, but they're not the only suburban idols who've heard the siren call of LCD Soundsystem's synthesizer or Timbaland's drum machine. Men, Women, and Children are a Glassjaw-descended electro rock band (isn't one Head Automatica enough?) that surround shrill, autotuned vocals with all manner of neon ProTools ephemera in a futile effort to polish the proverbial turd. While on an MTV2-sponsored tour with Jared Leto's 30 Seconds to Mars, the band were apparently robbed of their tour van, trailer, and equipment worth a total of $100,000. Sadly, not even that has stopped them. ERIC GRANDY

TUESDAY 4/17

TED LEO and THE PHARMACISTS, LOVE OF DIAGRAMS
(Showbox) See preview and Stranger Suggests.

KELLEY STOLTZ, ESSEX GREEN, DEPT. OF ENERGY
(Crocodile) The Essex Green have certainly grown up. After a couple early albums that sounded way too much like late-'90s kids mashing up Pet Sounds and Nuggets comps, Chris Ziter, Sasha Bell, and Jeff Baron settled down and refined their sound. Last year's Cannibal Sea shows the band in a comfortable, playful mood. The male/female vocals chime and wail with springtime exuberance, while the musicianship relies less on violins and tinkling triangles and more on solid guitar-driven hooks, snappy piano, and just the hint of a steel guitar. The newest songs address themes of travel, loneliness, and lost and found love, but what you really need to know is that the Essex Green have come into their own as purveyors of some of the finest pop music around. CHRIS McCANN

SAVES THE DAY, SAY ANYTHING, JOHN RALSTON
(Neumo's) I'm not (too) ashamed to admit that there was a split second when I harbored a soft spot for Saves the Day. I picked up some Vagrant Records comp from Singles Going Steady because it had an unreleased Anniversary song on it, and though most of the rest of the disc was crap, the Saves the Day song "Sell My Old Clothes, I'm off to Heaven" struck a geeky chord with me, and their full-length from that time, Stay What You Are, was an ebullient yet morbid piece of pop punk that earned many a spin in my old Discman. To say that Saves the Day and I grew apart would be diplomatic. To say that I grew up and they made an awful "mature" dream(works)-pop record would be more accurate. Their last album, Sound the Alarm, was another attempt at pop punk, but they lost me. ERIC GRANDY

WEDNESDAY 4/18

KAY KAY & HIS WEATHERED UNDERGROUND, THE QUIET ONES, SOUTHERLY
(Crocodile) Seattle's already saturated with garage rock, indie rock, shitty rock, and every other kind of rock you can think of. Kay Kay & His Weathered Underground know it, so they've taken a far more innovative approach to leaving their mark on the music scene—the mini orchestra play a delightfully vintage pop that boasts bright Beach Boys melodies and the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's psychedelic instrumentation. Their sound is playful and refreshing, and their live shows are enthusiastic, fun, and completely entertaining. Rather than killing your eardrums with an onslaught of noise (not that there's anything wrong with that), they just caress them with sweet harmonies and poise. MEGAN SELING

ROSIE THOMAS, DENISON WITMER, SHEILA SAPUTO
(Triple Door) The surest way for a performer to win an audience's love is to be brutally honest about the darkest moments of their soul, no matter how painful or embarrassing. Just be sure to do it with a smile. This technique works for singer-songwriters as well as standup comics, which is why Rosie Thomas, who has experience at both, is so entertaining live. The same petite woman who, in her childlike voice, just reminisced about intentionally passing gas over the head of a sleeping sibling will then sing about poignant heartbreak, and the two gestures actually enrich each other. Thomas's fourth album, These Friends of Mine, was made with Sufjan Stevens and Denison Witmer, but Thomas is so unflinchingly honest and good-humored she could carry a whole telethon on her lonesome. KURT B. REIGHLEY