Thursday 6/10
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Luck-One
(El CorazĂłn) See My Philosophy.
Ladies Night 2.0 hosted by Lisa Dank: Choklate, Anomie Belle, Luxury A.K., Dice, Marissa, DJ Colby B
(Neumos) Choklate is a local soul singer who has released two albums and worked with all of the big producers in our bayside town, particularly Bean One and Vitamin D. Her latest album, last year's To Whom It May Concern, breaks with much of the underground hiphop energy that informed her self-titled 2006 debut; it is not only on the neo-soul progressivism tip but also a stronger and fuller record. So what has Choklate been up to lately? She has been building her reputation in London Town, one of the capitals of the neo-soul movement (the others being L.A., Philly, and Chi-Town), releasing UK-exclusive singles and working with UK producers Reel People and the Layabouts & Manoo. On top of all that, she is working on her third album, which will be released in 2011 and feature production by big names such as 9th Wonder and Waajeed. CHARLES MUDEDE See also My Philosophy.
Bert Jansch, Pegi Young, Jim Page
(Triple Door) Scottish guitarist/vocalist Bert Jansch's prominent place in the pantheon is assured for his contributions to Pentangle, perhaps the most sublime component of the UK folk-rock explosion of the '60s, as well as a handful of well-respected solo works (ask Jimmy Page). Their stoned-foxy 1969 classic Basket of Light offered proof that trad folk can be psychedelicized without descending into kitsch and pastiche. Blessed with a sonorously mournful singing voice, Jansch has made ears prick up for 45 years with his acoustic-guitar mastery, which unspools in spidery, beautiful ribbons of pastoral bliss. The legendary troubadour's encyclopedic knowledge of his chosen idiom plus his own vast catalog of age-defying songs should yield a performance of intimate, intricate splendor. DAVE SEGAL
Arrington de Dionyso's Malaikat Dan Singa, Mongrel Blood, Geist & the Sacred Ensemble
(Comet) The latest project from Old Time Relijun front-shaman Arrington de Dionyso is a record sung (or more frequently sputtered, yelped, and howled) entirely in Indonesian, self-titled Malaikat Dan Singa, which translates as "Angels and Lions." For other artists, this might be a strange move, but strange moves are pretty much the only kind Dionyso's got. Underneath the other-tongued incantations (and occasional throat singing), Dionyso and crew stir up their "usual" roiling stew of swamp-boogie rhythms, nervy guitar riffing, and bleating clarinet drones. And it's not like you really knew what the guy was singing about even in English (many-headed beasts, maybe?). Mongrel Blood are a new collaboration between Spencer Moody (Murder City Devils, Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death) and Cameron Elliott (Battle Hymns)âno word on what language they'll be singing in tonight. ERIC GRANDY
Noise for the Needy: Animals at Night, Daniel G. Harmann and the Trouble Starts, Erik Blood, Mal de Mer
(Sunset) A lot of Erik Blood's recent accolades have been of the "OMG, this rock guy coproduced a hiphop record" variety (thanks to his hitching his audio-engineering skills to Shabazz Palaces' rapidly rising star). It's understandableâit's always encouraging to see artists break out of their supposed roles and to see Seattle's great variety of fertile musical fields cross-pollinating. But let's not neglect Blood's recent solo debut, The Way We Live, on which Blood dips sweet pop ditties into shoegaze's warm, fuzzy swirls with superb results. Tonight's Noise for the Needy benefit bill also features studio-slick supergroup Animals at Night, brawny balladeers Daniel G. Harmann and the Trouble Starts, and new Slender Means/Divorce spin-off Mal de Merâbut Blood is the easy highlight. ERIC GRANDY
THEESatisfaction, Weekend, Detective Agency, Ziskis
(High Dive) One more word of praise for THEESatisfaction. Unlike so many female rappers in the past and present, the duo successfully merges female sexuality with progressive politics. In contemporary black music, the two are usually separatedâfemininity being associated with the R&B pop world and progressive politics with masculine hiphop. THEESatisfaction do not surrender their femininity to the masculine tradition of hiphop; they absorb progressive attitudes and reformulate them in feminine/feminist termsâfemale sexuality becomes as good a weapon as any in the endless war against the establishment. CHARLES MUDEDE See also My Philosophy.
Hunab Ku, KEN mode, Madraso, Great Falls
(Funhouse) Any time local promoter Ladies' Choice (aka Adam Bass) presents a show, you know you're in for a quality evening of loud distorted guitars, unconventional song structures, and inspired malevolence. Tonight's bill is no different. Great Falls unleash torrents of abrasive guitars over drum- machine throb, Madraso offer up thick meaty slabs of driving post-punk, and Hunab Ku display a knack for lightning-fast Dorian scales and borrowing from the Mike Patton school of vocal trickery. But the highlight for this particular show would have to be Winnipeg's KEN mode. Take Unsane's gnarled crunch, Craw's math-metal predilections, and the Cows' confrontational backwoods rock 'n' roll, and you have a vague idea of the kind of whoopin' these Canucks are fixin' to bestow upon your sorry ass. BRIAN COOK
Friday 6/11
Noise for the Needy: Portland Cello Project, Grand Hallway, Drew Grow and the Pastors' Wives, Tomten
(Vera) See Underage.
Partman Parthorse, Mash Hall, Scraps
(Funhouse) See Suggests, and Fucking in the Streets.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Joe Cocker
(Gorge) It's easy to take Tom Petty for grantedâhe's been around forever, looked the same forever, sounded the same FOREVER. However, even a short time spent in a car with an FM radio will reconfirm Petty's stature as a classic-rock hit-maker without peer. (His closest competition: Steve Miller, who'll also have a half-dozen songs in perpetual FM rotation until the end of time.) Petty and the Heartbreakers are touring in support of their new album, Mojoâbut there should be plenty of stage time to revisit the eternal hits. Opening the show: extravagantly mannered English bluesman Joe Cocker. DAVID SCHMADER
Joy Wants Eternity, You.May.Die.In.The.Desert, My Education, Silhouettes
(Sunset) Austin quintet My Education give their homies Explosions in the Sky a run for their aural pyrotechnics. On their new album, Sunrise (Strange Attractors Audio House), they craft solemnly gorgeous orchestral compositions that convey the weight of momentous emotions and actions. No voices mar the graceful arcs of cello, violin, French horn, and vibraphone that augment the core rock instrumentation that My Education wield. "City Woman" in particular demonstrates the group's facility with fluid dynamics and majestic melody, while displaying an admirable concisionâwell, compared to most long-winded artists of their ilk. Less bombastic than many of their peers on Constellation and Temporary Residence Records, My Education emerge as one of America's finest instrumental bandsâand I'm not just saying that because they've collaborated with experimental hiphoppers DĂ€lek. DAVE SEGAL
Are you a cat?, Unfair Parents, My Printer Broke, Forrest Friends
(Blue Moon) Do I need to tell you yet again about the splendors of Are you a cat? You surely know by now that the Seattle duo are shape-shifting sonic sorcerers who imbue any genre they touch with a skull-snapping weirdness and wonderfulness (and they touch a lot of genres). Right? Right. Their comrades in radical sound deconstruction, Forrest Friends, have been recording with Are you a cat? member Jason Smothers at the controls. The first psychotropical fruits from this meeting find Forrest Friends doling out some free-form fungal freakiness Ă la Amon DĂŒĂŒl I and Angus MacLise circa Astral Collapse. Chaos has been harnessed into threatening storm clouds of sound, and it's hysteria in the making. DAVE SEGAL
Rack and Roll: Stone Rangers, the Braxmatics
(High Dive) As a hater of breast cancer and a lover of bad puns, I am required by law to recommend Rack and Roll, a breast-cancer benefit tonight at the High Dive. On the bill: the Stone Rangers, a Cle Elumâbased cover band comprising "seasoned musicians from the late 1960s" (so says their MySpace page, which also features the band busting out a rendition of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" that sounds like Lynyrd Skynyrd getting FONKAY), and the Braxmatics, a Seattle band specializing in psychedelic funk-rock. DAVID SCHMADER
Saturday 6/12
Noise for the Needy: the Album Leaf, Kinski, Baths
(Neumos) See preview.
HEALTH, Indian Jewelry, Gold Panda
(Vera) See preview.
Jerry Abstract, Let's Go Outside, J-Sun vs. Kadeejah Streets, DJ Sulli, Deepvibez, Patriq, Ramiro
(The Islander) See Data Breaker.
Aqueduct, Math and Physics Club, Skeletons with Flesh on Them
(Crocodile) Tonight, Seattle indie-pop outfit Math and Physics Club celebrate the release of their new record, I Shouldn't Look as Good as I Do. The album consists of songs about memories captured on Polaroid pictures, cute girls with good hair, and the exciting nervousness that precedes saying "I love you" for the first time. Musically, it's just as cute and charming as its subject matter, with bubbly guitar lines and galloping melodies. Their songs make love sound all warm and happy and easy. Aqueduct's embittered, keyboard-led tunes, on the other hand, will remind you how it can all go wrong. MEGAN SELING
Noise for the Needy: Thunderheist, the Tempers, JuLaVee & Friends, Sap'N
(Chop Suey) Thunderheist are a Toronto-based electro-rap duo with some local connections (their video for "Jerk It" was done by Seattle/Brooklyn video crew That Go, who are also responsible for a clip for Natalie Portman's Shaved Head). They sound something like a listless little sibling of Chicago MC Kid Sisterâthin digital synth lines, preset club beats, raps delivered in a low, lethargic monotone. Years past its sell-by date, and not all that fresh to begin with. Far livelier is promising young Seattle band the Tempers, a high-drama family rock act whose frontwoman's arty weirdness (read: mad, stomping, costumed stage presence) and vocal reach recall the likes of Kate Bush or Siouxsie Sioux. ERIC GRANDY
Sunday 6/13
Noise for the Needy: John Vanderslice, Karl Blau, Love Sick
(Tractor) This year's prematurely blooming cherry trees reminded us that the rhythms of nature can be flexible. With that in mind, there's really no reason why we shouldn't enjoy summery albums throughout the year, up to and including this prolonged cusp of summertime we're currently teetering on. Karl Blau's Zebra (tailor-made for the summer, released in the fall) defies any inclement weather. The album exhibits an intoxicating cross-pollination of genre leaningsâa touch of Paul Piot on many songs, an abundance of malfunctioning robot spritz, and a pervasive lounge-y vibe. On Zebra, Blau sings like a sun-dazed John Muir, but his instrumental accompaniment sounds straight out of an alternate-reality moon-base nightclub. Hopefully he'll dole out some of Zebra's kooky chillness tonight alongside coperformers John Vanderslice and Love Sick. JASON BAXTER
Noise for the Needy: Bronze Fawn, Summer Babes, Hurricane Chaser, Eighteen Individual Eyes
(Sunset) Seattle's Hungry Pines were a promising, guitar-driven post-rock band whose praises I often sang within these pages. It broke my heart when they broke up. Thankfully, the band members softened the blow by moving on to different but still fantastic projects, two of which you can see tonight. Bassist (and sometimes Stranger-contributor) Bryce Shoemaker plays in Bronze Fawn, a fluid and dynamic instrumental act that supplements its live shows with weird vintage-video footage of stuff like chickens hatching. Eighteen Individual Eyes feature two former Hungry Pine players, singer Irene Barber and guitarist Chrysti Harrison. EIE flirt with the same guitar-heavy, melodramatic sound Hungry Pines had, and Barber's gorgeous voice remains the backbone of their songs. Bonus: It's a Noise for the Needy show, so just showing up and paying at the door means you're doing something good. MEGAN SELING
Monday 6/14
Zappa Plays Zappa
(Moore) Dweezil Zappaâwho's now 40 years oldâhas had several decades to hone his considerable guitar chops on his infamous dad's oeuvre. (Hey, it's a livingâplus, the royalties funnel back into the family bank account.) In all seriousness, Frank Zappa's occasionally genius, sporadically puerile, oft-zany catalog deserves preservation and reanimation, and Dweezil is more than up for the challenge. The eight-piece group he's assembled focuses mainly on the Mothers of Invention leader's rock-oriented material from the '60s through the '80s. It's a panoply of complex prog and psych rock with a coating of sneering, derisive lyrics. Ultimately, Zappa Plays Zappa is a reverent tribute to an irreverent musician, a nostalgic display of virtuosity to an iconoclast who often spoofed nostalgia. It's a paradox that rocksâbizarrely. DAVE SEGAL
Tuesday 6/15
Stars, Dead Child Star
(Triple Door) In terms of popular acclaim, Canadian pop stalwarts Stars may be a lesser light in Broken Social Scene's extended constellation, but the best of their songs shine no less brightly than do, say, that band's album cuts. Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan share vocal duties, giving their songs the same wide range of perspective and tone as BSS's rotating male/female roster allows; Campbell tends toward the maudlin (insert requisite mention of his acting ability here), Millan toward the bright and sweet. The lead single off their forthcoming Vagrant album The Five Ghosts, "Fixed," is a propulsive, giddily upbeat number led by Millan's cool, tuneful cooing backed by high-speed drumming and swathed in sparkling then pulsing synth lines. It's a promising first sight of the new record. ERIC GRANDY
Wednesday 6/16
Stars, Dead Child Star
(Triple Door) See Tuesday.
Akimbo, Lords, Dog Shredder, Rad Touch
(Comet) A bad touch is what happens when you get sent to summer camp and that overfriendly youth pastor gets a liiiiittle too close. It's also what might happen if you accidentally wander too far from the family reunion and your dad's uncle Willie (aka "Weird Willie") decides to follow you into the woods. A Rad Touch is something altogether different. A Rad Touch is a sorta post-punkish, sorta metal-ish hybrid of a band that's a little bit Fugazi and a little bit Converge. The only thing they'll try to violate is your inner ear as they smash their drums, thrash all over their guitars, and howl through heavy songs with winking titles like "Shark Week," "Pizza Cop," and "Booby Tassels." KELLY O
Bob Log III, Little Cuts, Dirty Bird Cabaret
(Tractor) A fiery cracker, Bob Log III plays the blues, dirty-white-boy-style, with faithful irreverence to the fore. Making Jon Spencer Blues Explosion sound like ELP, Mr. Log strips those familiar chords down to their stank Delta essence, adds gnarly crackle and fuzz to his guitar, sings through a hot-wired telephone receiver, and provides his own stomping kick drums. On his latest full-length, My Shit Is Perfect, he broadens his repertoire into bluegrass and funk, but the quintessential gutbucket Log-iness remains. Live, Bob Log III dons a skintight silver jumpsuit and motorcycle helmet and talks mad, entertaining shit while giving crowds trucker-speed-gobbling, hooch-guzzling gratification. The hangover is usually wicked, but you'll hear no regrets from his rabid fans. DAVE SEGAL
