(Highline) Fuck the Facts is a fitting name for a scorching technical grindcore band. What’s a bigger middle finger to logic and reason than trying to operate and sustain a project that 99.9 percent of the population would write off as unlistenable noise? It’s a defiant gesture aptly demonstrated by bassist Marc Bourgon’s cheeky response to a recent slew of breakup announcements from bands grumbling about their inability to make a living off of music. Bourgon issued his own statement announcing that Fuck the Facts could no longer afford to tour, but were going to keep doing it anyway. The realm of blast-beats and pinch harmonics has never been particularly lucrative, but given their chops and ferocity, Fuck the Facts are certainly deserving of more than just gas money. With Transient, Streetwalker, and Sciatica. BRIAN COOK
See event info »
(Sunset) This bill is a two-on-two Seattle vs. Portland all-star smackdown of heavy-rock aggression. The home team: headliners Haunted Horses—whose ferocious 2013 full-length Watcher managed to capture on record the “industrial-punk postapocalyptic satanic space-jam” onslaught their plentiful live shows have made them known for—and He Whose Ox Is Gored, whose forward-thinking “doomgaze” is tinged with just the right amount of melody without sacrificing their crushing heaviness. Visiting from Portland are Diesto, who have a sludgier, metal-leaning progressive approach to counter Ox’s, and Drunk Dad, whose contorted, genre-blending scuzzcore has made them one of Portland’s heaviest live bands. Everybody in attendance wins. MIKE RAMOS
See event info »
(Snoqualmie Casino) The cover of Jefferson Starship’s first album, 1974’s Dragon Fly, features a futuristic silver person leaping over a lightning bolt in space. The following year came Red Octopus—it’s red; the octopus’s body is a heart (less cute than it sounds). One year later came Spitfire: A woman straddles an orb-clutching dragon that appears to have come out of whatever long stick she’s smoking. The cover of JSS’s 1978 album Earth is mostly three-dimensional Star Wars font, with planet Earth. On Freedom at Point Zero (’79) we see a blond boy in a scout uniform flinging a multicolored thing (starship?) into the air. Modern Times features a very 1981 “computer font”; a woman in an oddly baggy black catsuit with a pointy hood crawls on some marble. Hmm. Winds of Change, 1982: wolf, Saturn, neon, maze. Nuclear Future, 1984: lime-green chair, “distressed-stencil” font. Windows of Heaven, 1992: red-splattered computer-generated naked body (with boobs). Jefferson’s Tree of Liberty, 2008, has, um, an American flag, Thomas Jefferson, and some yellowed parchment on the cover. Snapshot, 2013: a photo of six men, two of them in hats. Jefferson Starship are related to, but not the same as Starship—the band responsible for “We Built This City.” I hope you found this useful. EMILY NOKES
See event info »
(Showbox Sodo) Franz Ferdinand are one of those all-right British rock bands that get hyped in the NME and then go on to moderate-to-big success in the US and then go through a dance phase to mixed reactions. You know the type. I’ve been witnessing this same cycle repeat endlessly from the early ’80s onward, and it gets tiresome. Franz Ferdinand’s latest album, 2013’s Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, sparks with the sort of catchy, cocaine-y dance-rock tunes that have been animating the country’s Urban Outfitters for the last dozen or so years. (Hot Chip members and Todd Terje produced some tracks, so the beats and bass punch authoritatively.) Welsh singer/guitarist Cate Le Bon’s music offers subtler pleasures. Her quaintly formal and dulcet delivery appealingly constrasts with music that, at its best, jangles and contorts with the charming eccentricity of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. DAVE SEGAL
See event info »
(Neumos) Every time Lil B releases one of his rambling, stream-of-consciousness mixtapes, Kool Keith should get a royalty check. Keith's madcap antics, enigmatic persona, and inimitable off-the-dome rhymes have alternately thrilled and disoriented hiphop heads ever since he started out with the Ultramagnetic MCs in the ’80s. Though 1996's trippy, dystopian Dr. Octagonecologyst—recorded under his Dr. Octagon alter ego—remains his consensus masterpiece, Keith has produced a plethora of albums of wildly varying quality since then, lending his elliptical flow and serial scatology to aliases such as Black Elvis (extraterrestrial lothario) and Dr. Dooom (who, in the opening track of his album, murders Dr. Octagon). Though at times it verges on unlistenable, Keith's conceptually outré music is never less than fascinating, and glimpses of a nearly savant-like brilliance still emerge from the rinky-dink, dishwater-dirty beats. In light of all this, live performances from the man born Keith Thornton have received expectedly mixed reviews; if nothing else, come prepared for a spectacle. With Ricky and Mark. KYLE FLECK
See event info
Marc Kinchen (aka MK) established himself as a techno and house-music fixture in the late 1980s and '90s while living in the Detroit area and cutting singles for Kevin Saunderson's KMS label, among others. Kinchen drew praise for his sonically sophisticated and soulful tracks featuring his exceptional keyboard work and orchestral touches. Early singles like "Somebody New" and "Decay" still sound fresh today. In recent years, Kinchen has raised his profile with remixes that convert pop songs into dance-club heaters, transforming hits by Haim, Lana Del Rey, Hot Natured, and others. With Studio 4/4 residents Nordic Soul, Dr. Fever, and Moss. Q Nightclub, 9 pm, $10 adv, 21+.
Read the rest of this week's Data Breaker coverage here »
And here's all our recommended music events—tonight, tomorrow, this weekend, and beyond!
